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THOMAS PAINE, 


THE APOSTLE 


OF 


Religious and Political Liberty 


BY 


JOHN E. REMSBURG. 


"Cursed by 



BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY J. P. MENDUM, 
PAINE MEMORIAL BUILDING, 

APPLETON STREET. 

1880 . 



Copyright, 1880 by J. P. Mendum, 


PRINTRD BY T. W. RIPLEY, 
138 Congress Street, Boston. 


in,. k/. \of.rf/cj, s s xi kp-un 


IN MEMORY OF 


VJ 

i 

GILBERT VALE, 

THE BRILLIANT JOURNALIST, LONG SINCE DEPARTED; 

$ 

TO 

HORACE SEAVER, 

THE VETERAN FREF.THOUGHT EDITOR ; 

AND TO 

ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, 

THE DEMOSTHENES OF AMERICA, 

MEN 

WHO HAVE DEVOTED THE BEST POWERS OF THEIR GENIUS 

TO RESCUING FROM OBLIVION 

THE FAIR FAME OF NATURE’S GREAT. NOBLEMAN, 

THOMAS PAINE, 

THIS LITTLE WORK IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED 


BY THE AUTHOR. 
















































. 












. 
























































CONTENTS 


- +o* - 

PART I. 

LIFE. 

CHAP T E R I. 

PACK 

BrRTH — Early History — Emigration to Amer¬ 
ica— Services in the Cause of American 
Independence . 11 

CHAPTER II. 

His Career in Europe — Return to America — 

Death. 19 


PART II. 

CHARACTER AND WORKS. 

- c IIAPTER III. 

Social Qualities — Moral . Attributes — Liter¬ 
ary and other Works. 31 


( 5 ) 









6 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER IV. 

PAGE 

44 Common Sense”—“American Crisis”— 44 Rights 

of Man”—“Age of Reason”.42 


PART III. 
VINDICATION. 


CHAPTER V. 

Examination of Calumnies.57 

CHAPTER VI. 

Testimonials to Paine’s Character.65 


APPENDIX. 

Speech of Thomas Paine before the National 

Convention of France .Ill 

The Will of Thomas Paine.118 

Speech of Mr. Sampson on the Trial of James 

Cheetham.121 

Cobbett’s History of the Recantation Cal¬ 
umny .124 

Manchester Resolutions.129 

Sheffield Resolutions.130 

Act of Pennsylvania General Assembly . . . 131 

Resolutions of the United States Congress . 132 

Washington to Paine.133 

The Author-Hero ..133 














PREFACE. 


“ Republics are ungrateful,” is a maxim old almost 
as the republican idea itself, and the treatment that 
Thomas Paine has received at the hands of a people 
who, enjoying the freedom and boasting of the gran¬ 
deur of this great Republic, teach their children to 
loathe his memory — the memory of him whose magic 
pen called it into being — is additional evidence of its 
truthfulness. 

It can be said in palliation of this ingratitude on 
the part of the great mass of the American people, 
however, that it results from a lack of information 
regarding Paine's life. They have not been permit¬ 
ted to know the facts connected with his history. His 
true character has been studiously kept from public 
view. Those who have feared his influence have as¬ 
sumed a sort of censorship over all that has been 
written pertaining to him, condemning and suppress- 


8 


PREFACE. 


ing as far as possible everything favorable to him, and 
approving and zealously aiding in the dissemination 
of everything derogatory to his reputation. By this 
means his noble qualities of soul have been dwarfed 
into infinitesimal atoms of virtue, while his faults 
have been magnified until they rise before us a tower¬ 
ing Chimborazo of vice and crime. 

Take up almost any popular history of the day, and 
you will find his services to our country either en¬ 
tirely ignored, or disposed of in a brief paragraph or 
a marginal note,— not because the writer is ignorant 
of Paine’s true place in history, nor yet from a desire 
to wrong the man, but because he well knows that 
any attempt to render him full credit will detract 
from the popularity of his work, — a sacrifice he is 
not prepared to make. 

I am free to confess that I have no admiration for 
the “ Tom Paine ” so often portrayed to us. There 
is nothing in the character to admire. But it should 
be remembered that this character is purely ficti¬ 
tious, — that it never existed outside the realms of 
imagination. It is a creation of Bigotry, produced 
in self-defence. With the “Tom Paine” of fiction 
I have nothing to do : it is with the Thomas Paine of 
history that I propose to deal. 

In the investigation of this subject I have exam- 


PREFACE. 


9 


ined as far as possible everything bearing upon the life 
of Paine. I have endeavored to judge impartially, 
alike the claims of his adherents and the charges of 
his opponents; and in rejecting some of the former, 
and most of the latter, I have been guided solely by 
a desire to establish the truth. Whatever verdict 
the public may pass upon this work, it cannot, I am 
sure, question the motives that prompted its con¬ 
clusion. My task is at most a thankless one. He, 
who alone might thank me for my labors, is in his 
grave, unconscious of my humble effort in vindica¬ 
tion of his memory. 

J. E. R. 


Atchison, Kan., .Tan. 29, 1879. 
















































































THOMAS PAINE. 


-•<>•- 

I. 


LIFE. 


CHAPTER I. 

BIRTH-EARLY HISTORY-EMIGRATION TO AMERICA-SER¬ 

VICES IN THE CAUSE OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. 


“ When first with awful front to crush her foes, 
All bright in glittering arms, Columbia rose, 
From thee our sons the generous mandate took, 
As if from Heaven some oracle had spoke; 

And when thy pen revealed the grand design, 
’Twas done, — Columbia’s liberty was thine.” 


It is the fate of reformers to be doomed to dis¬ 
appointment. Enthusiasts by nature, and fully im¬ 
bued with the justness and importance of the cause 
they advocate, they feel that the mere announcement 
of it should meet with a glad response. They see 
their fellow-beings bending beneath the weight of 
some slavish custom that despotism has imposed. 
With brave and loving hearts they rush to their de¬ 
liverance, little dreaming that those they wish to save 

(ii) 




12 


THOMAS PAINE, 


will spurn the proffered aid, and smite the hand that 
would unbind their chains. But such is the blind¬ 
ness and ingratitude of man. The apostle of liberty 
becomes the martyr, and the brow that merits the 
laurel wreath too often wears the crown of thorns. 
Lafayette died with France a monarchy, and an 
imbecile on the throne; Kossuth pleaded the Ceruse 
of his loved Hungary with an eloquence rarely 
surpassed, but the world was deaf to his appeals; 
Garibaldi struggled manfully to enhance the liberties 
of his countrymen, but only to lose his own ; Castellar 
beheld the star of republicanism rise above the 
horizon in Spain, shine for one brief hour, and then 
go down in darkness. 

But have these heroes lived, and labored, and 
suffered, all in vain ? No, not in vain. Because their 
efforts were not crowned with immediate and com¬ 
plete success we must not count their lives a failure. 
The husbandman who sows to-day does not expect to 
look out upon waving fields of ripening grain to¬ 
morrow. He has learned to work and wait. He 
sows his seed in the autumn ; it springs from the 
earth, and for a time gladdens the eye with its carpet 
of green. Then come the chilling, freezing blasts of 
winter; the deep snow falls, and for months it lies 
buried from sight. But it does not perish. Spring 
with her genial smiles of melting sunshine comes at 
last, the snowy mantle fades away, and those tiny 
blades are soon transformed into the rich, ripe 
harvest. So with these grand husbandmen of human 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


13 


liberty. They sowed the seed, it has already ger¬ 
minated, and, though it now lies hid for the most 
part beneatli the snows of monarchy, it will yet 
appear and cover Europe with its golden harvest. 

It is too early yet to form a proper estimate of the 
labors of Thomas Paine. When the “ Rights of Man ” 
shall have developed into the full and perfect flower 
of universal freedom,— when the “ Age of Reason” 
shall have ripened into the golden harvest of univer¬ 
sal mental enfranchisement,— then, and not till then, 
will his services be valued at their true worth. 

I am not a disciple of Thomas Paine ; I cannot 
accept as infallible authority all that he has written ; 
I do not believe, as many of his followers would have 
us believe, that he represents the end of human pro¬ 
gress,— the attainment of human perfection,— not at 
all. But, while I am not blind to his imperfections, 
I cannot close my eyes to his real merits, nor can I 
find words to express my contempt for those who do 
ignore his truly grand achievements. 

To tell the story of this great man’s life ; to delin¬ 
eate the leading traits of his character and genius; 
and to repel the base calumnies that have been 
heaped against his name, — is my task. 

One hundred and forty-two years ago, at Thetford, 
England, Thomas Paine was born. Upon the first 
half of his life I need but briefly dwell. He was of 
humble parentage; his father was a Quaker, his 
mother a member of the Church of England. The 
years of his boyhood were industriously employed, 


14 


THOMAS PAINE, 


either at school or in his father’s shop. At an early 
age he left the paternal roof and began alone the 
battle of life, —serving in the British navy, conduct¬ 
ing an academy in London, engaging in mercan¬ 
tile pursuits, and performing the duties of excise¬ 
man. 

While at London he formed the acquaintance of 
the learned Franklin, who induced him to cross the 
ocean and cast his lot with the people of the New 
World. He came to America near the close of 1774, 
and assumed editorial charge of a leading magazine 
of the day. His quick eye soon took in the situation 
here. He saw a tyrant, whom the world sty]ed king, 
trampling the fair form of liberty beneath his feet; he 
saw the people sinking beneath the burden of unjust 
taxation ; he saw them crouching and cringing before 
the throne, pleading in vain for a redress of wrongs. 
His generous nature ever prompted him to espouse 
the cause of the weak and the oppressed, and the con¬ 
dition of the Colonies at this time could not fail to 
enlist his sympathy and services. 

He associated with himself the ablest minds of 
America, and impressed them with the importance of 
her total separation from England. One of the early 
meetings of these patriots has been thus graphically 
described: — 

“ Grouped around a table, the glow of the lamp pouring 
full in their faces, are four persons, — a Boston Lawyer, a 
Philadelphia Printer, a Philadelphia Doctor, and a Vir¬ 
ginia Planter. 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


15 


u Let us look into the faces of these men. That man 
with the bold brow and resolute look is one John Adams, 
from Boston ; next to him sits the calm-faced Benjamin 
Rush; there } r ou see the marked face of the printer, one 
Benjamin Franklin ; and, last of all, your eye rests upon 
a man distinguished above all others by his height, the 
noble outlines of his form, and the solemn dignity of his 
brow. That man is named Washington. 

“ These men are all members of the Rebel Congress. 
They have met here to talk over the affairs of their 
country Their conversation is deep-toned — cautious — 
hurried. Every man seems afraid to give utterance to 
the thoughts of his bosom. Bound to England by ties of 
ancestry, language, religion, the very idea of separation 
from her seems a blasphemy. 

‘"A visitor is - announced. He takes his seat at the 
table. Look upon his brow, his flashing e3'e, as in earnest 
words he pours forth his soul. He goes on ; his broad, 
solid brow warms with fire, his eye flashes the full light of 
a soul roused into all its life ; those deep, earnest tones 
speak of the Independence of America — her glorious 
Future — her People, that shall swell into countless 
millions — her Nav}’, that shall whiten the uttermost sea 
— her Destiny, that shall stride on over the wreck of 
thrones to the Universal Empire of the Western Con¬ 
tinent ! 

“ Then, behold ! they rise round the table — they press 
that man by the hand — nay, the Virginia Planter, 
Washington, grasps both his hands, and, in a voice deep¬ 
ened bv emotion, begs him to write these words in a book, 

_ a book that shall be read in all the homes and thundered 

from all the pulpits of America.” 


16 


THOMAS PAINE, 


The book was written. With the firm belief that 
truth would triumph, Paine marshalled the legions 
of thought that sprang from his prolific brain, and on 
the 1st of January, 1776, moved in solid columns 
against the citadel of tyranny. The shock was 
irresistible. 

“ From turret to foundation stone,” the solid 
masonry gave way, and fell before the fierce assault. 
Into the breach thus made an eager people rushed, 
and on the ruins placed the unsoiled banner of a new 
Republic. 

That the Fourth of July, 1776, would not have 
witnessed the Declaration of Independence but for 
the timely appearance of u Common Sense,” no can¬ 
did, impartial student of history will for a moment 
question. Yet many assume that the Colonies were 
slowly drifting to this goal, and would in time have 
reached it without the services of Paine. Grant the 
assumption, and does it detract from his well-earned 
fame ? As well snatch the laurels from the brow of 
Lincoln because the downfall of slavery was deemed 
inevitable, as to withhold from the author of “ Com¬ 
mon Sense ” the meed of praise so justly due. 

This book first suggested American Independ¬ 
ence ; in this book appeared for the first time the 
“Free and Independent States of America”; in this 
book may be found all the fundamental principles 
of our government; and, without depreciating the 
labors of Jefferson, it is but justice to say that the 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


17 


‘“Declaration of Independence ” is but an epitome of 
“ Common Sense.” 

Nor did his efforts end here. He was the inspir¬ 
ing genius of the long war that followed, accompany¬ 
ing the army and sharing its hardships and perils. 
When Washington’s little army was hurled from 
Long Island, up the Hudson, and across New Jersey, 
by the combined forces of Howe and Clinton,— 
when despondency and gloom filled every heart, and 
all seemed lost,— Paine came to the rescue with the 
first number of his “ Crisis,” in which were couched 
those thrilling words, — “ These are the times that 
try men’s souls.” 

The pamphlet was read at the head of each regi¬ 
ment, and sent broadcast over the land. The effect 
was magical: into the dispirited ranks it breathed 
new life and energy, and in the breasts of the people 
planted a fixed determination never to give up the 
struggle. At critical periods throughout the war, 
number after number of the brave little work ap¬ 
peared, until in the XV. he could triumphantly 
say, “ The times that tried men’s souls are over, 
and the greatest *and completest revolution the world 
ever knew is gloriously and happily accomplished.” 

Congress showed its appreciation of his labors by 
appointing him Secretary to the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs, and issuing an order that his 
patriotic works should be read at the head of the 
armies. Washington, Franklin, and other friends 
urged him to apply for the remuneration so justly 


18 


THOMAS PAINE, 


due him ; but, though forced to eat the bread of 
poverty, he steadily declined asking any compensa¬ 
tion for his services. Congress, however, presented 
him with three thousand dollars, Pennsylvania gave 
him five hundred pounds, and New York conveyed 
to him a rich and valuable estate. 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


19 


CHAPTER II. 

HIS CAREER IN EUROPE — RETURN TO AMERICA -DEATH. 


“ When France shall lift her banners fair, 
And brighter hopes shall dawn once more, 
In counting up her jewels rare, 

She'll not forget the days of yore. 

For when the name of Lafayette 
Shall summon others in its train, 

There’s one she never will forget, — 

The ‘ author-hero,’ Thomas Paine.” 


In France the people were struggling against a 
corrupt and oppressive monarchy. Emulating the ex¬ 
ample of Lafayette, Paine left his adopted America, 
and enlisted his services in the cause of freedom 
there. 

Tranquillity having been for a brief season re¬ 
stored, he returned to England, where, in reply to 
Burke’s celebrated “Reflections on the French Revo¬ 
lution,” appeared his immortal “ Rights of Man.” 

The storms of revolution bursting forth afresh, 
he again repaired to France. A joyous reception 
awaited his arrival at Calais. As he stepped upon 
the shore a hundred cannon thundered “ Welcome ! ” 
People thronged the streets, shouting “ Vive Thomas 
Paine ! ” Bright flowers fell in showers around him; 


20 


THOMAS PAINE, 


fair hands placed in his hat the National Cockade ; 
and all France was ready to honor her defender. 
Four departments, Abbeville, Beauvais, Calais, and 
Versailles, each chose him for its representative. He 
accepted the honor from Calais, and took his seat in 
the National Convention. 

His abilities were at once recognized in this body, 
and he was selected as a member of the Committee 
appointed to draft a new Constitution for France. 

Then came the trial of Louis XVI., and the be- 
gining of those turbulent scenes which culminated in 
the •* Reign of Terror.” A majority of the Conven¬ 
tion were clamoring for blood. Paine had been one 
of the foremost in overthrowing the Monarchy. He 
believed the king to have been tyrannical, —to have 
been the pliant tool of a corrupt nobility ; but he 
did not deem him worthy of death, nor did he believe 
that the best interests of France would be subserved 
by such harsh measures. But the terrorists threatened 
with vengeance all who should dare to oppose them. 
To plead the cause of the king would be to share his 
fate. A vote by any member in favor of saving his 
life would be almost certain to bring an overwhelm¬ 
ing vote against that member’s own life. What 
course would Paine pursue? Would he quietly 
acquiesce in those infamous proceedings? He had 
never yet faltered in his purpose of pursuing what 
he deemed the right. Would he shrink from danger 
now? No; above the wild storm of that enraged 
assembly rose the voice of that brave man, in power- 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


21 


ful, eloquent appeals in behalf of mercy. In the 
language of Madame de Stael, 44 Thomas Paine alone 
proposed what would have done honor to France.” 
But his defence was in vain. Amid the insults and 
execrations of a frenzied mob, the unhappy Louis 
was hurried to the scaffold. 

The Jacobins, now in the ascendency, resolved to 
exercise their power to the utmost in crushing out 
every vestige of opposition, by destroying not only 
those Avho were opposed to a republic, but those who 
were opposed to their particular plans of establishing 
a republic. The Girondists, who alone would have 
proved the true saviors of France, were first expelled 
from the Convention, then dragged to prison and to 
the guillotine. 

Paine was thrown into prison. His alleged crime 
was having been born an Englishman ; his real crime 
was the advocacy of mercy. Soon after his arrest 
the Americans residing in Paris appeared in a body 
before the Convention, and presented the following 
address: — 


44 Citizens! The French nation had invited the most 
illustrious of all foreign nations to the honor of represent¬ 
ing her. Thomas Paine, the apostle of liberty in America, 
a profound and valuable philosopher, a virtuous and 
esteemed citizen, came to France and took a seat among 
you. Particular circumstances rendered necessary the 
decree to put under arrest all the English residing in 
France. 

‘‘Citizens! Representatives! We come to demand of 


22 


THOMAS PAINE, 


you Thomas Paine, in the name of the friends of liberty, 
and in the name of the Americans, your brothers and 
allies. Were there anything more wanted to obtain our 
demand, we would tell you. Do not give to the leagued 
despots the pleasure of seeing Paine in irons. We shall 
inform you that the seals put upon the papers of Thomas 
Paine have been taken off; that the Committee of General 
Safety examined them, and, far from finding among them 
any dangerous propositions, they only found the love of 
liberty which characterized him all his lifetime, that elo¬ 
quence of nature and philosophy which made him the 
friend of mankind, and those principles of public morality 
which merited the hatred of kings and the affections of 
his fellow-citizens.” 

The friends of Paine, however, were unable to 
procure his release, and he calmly awaited his fate. 
Sentence of death was finall} 7 pronounced against 
him; his death warrant was signed, and the fatal 
mark placed upon his door. But the officer, whose 
duty it was to mark with chalk the doors of the 
doomed prisoners, unwittingly placed the mark upon 
Paine’s door as it stood open. When the guards 
gathered up the victims for execution, his door was 
closed, the mark .was inside, and he was missed. 
Soon after, and before the mistake was discovered, 
the bloody Robespierre was overthrown, and his own 
neck received the blow intended for Paine. The 
fall of Robespierre stemmed the crimson torrent and 
secured for Paine his liberation. The strange inci¬ 
dents connected with this event are thus related by 
himself: — 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


23 


“ I was one of the nine members that composed the first 
Committee of Constitution. Six of them have been de- 
stro} r ed. Sieyes and myself have survived, — he by bend¬ 
ing with the times, and I by not bending. The other 
survivor joined Robespierre, and signed with him the 
warrant of m} r arrestation. After the fall of Robespierre, 
he was seized and imprisoned in his turn, and sentenced 
to transportation. 

“ Herault Sechelles, an acquaintance of Mr. Jefferson 
and a good patriot, was my suppliant as member of the 
Committee of Constitution ; that is, he was to supply my 
place if I had not accepted or had resigned, being next in 
number of votes to me. He was imprisoned in the Lux¬ 
embourg with me, was taken to the tribunal and the 
guillotine, and I, his principal, was left. 

“ There were but two foreigners in the Convention,— 
Anacharsis Cloots and myself. We were both put out of 
the Convention by the same vote, arrested by the same 
order, and carried to prison together the same night. He 
was taken to the guillotine, and I was again left. 

“ Joseph Lebon, one of the vilest characters that ever 
existed, and who made the streets of Arras run with blood, 
was my suppliant as member of the Convention for the 
department of the Pais de Calais. When I was put out 
of the Convention he came and took my place. When I 
was liberated from prison, and voted again into the Con¬ 
vention, he was sent to the same prison and took my place 
there, and he went to the guillotine instead of me. He 
supplied my place all the way through. 

“ One hundred and sixty-eight persons were taken out 
of the Luxembourg in one night, and a hundred and sixty 
guillotined the next day, of which I know I was to have 
been one. 


24 


THOMAS PAINE, 


u During the whole of my imprisonment, prior to the 
fall of Robespierre, there was no time when I could think 
m} r life worth twenty-four hours, and my mind was made 
up to meet its fate.” 

Had Paine been more orthodox in his religious 
views, his remarkable escape would doubtless be 
cited as a striking example of Divine intervention. 
Had the production of Butler’s “ Analogy,” Paley’s 
“Evidences,” or Watson’s “ Apology ” been attended 
by circumstances similar to those which attended the 
production of the “ Age of Reason,” a large portion 
of which was written during his confinement and 
immediately after his release, great would be the 
significance attached to them. As it is, however, 
they are to be considered entirely fortuitous. 

The imprisonment of Paine had lasted for nearly 
a year. It was a year fraught with deeds dark and 
terrible. That memorable period, beginning with 
the expulsion of the Girondists in June, ’93, and 
ending with the downfall of the Jacobins in July, 
’94, stands without a parallel in the annals of modern 
history. 

Let us contemplate for a moment this bloody and 
protracted drama. Let us in imagination visit that 
gloomy Paris. Let us wander through her dreary 
prisons, filled with beings of every age, sex, and 
rank,—gray-haired men, who look with stolid in¬ 
difference upon the scenes around them; youth, 
pale with fear and trembling; heroic types of man¬ 
hood, pacing to and fro with all the bearing of 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


25 


conquerors; frail women, whose swollen eyes — 
those tear-stained windows of the soul — faintly re¬ 
veal the fearful agony within. 

The scene is changed. It is midnight, yet all is 
bustle and confusion — an eager crowd is gathering 
— the death tumbril goes rumbling by toward the 
Place de Revolution — the groans of men, the shrieks 
of women, rend the air, and throw a shade of deepest 
sadness over all. 

Daylight dawns, and again the scene shifts. The 
bustle is over now — the crowd have dispersed — 
those shrieks and groans are hushed ; but that huge 
pile of headless trunks — those pools of blood —that 
blood-stained instrument, to whose edge still cling the 
straggling hairs of its victims, the golden threads of 
youth mingled with the silver hairs of age, — all 
these tell of the frightful tragedy enacted here. 

And thus, day after day, week after week, month 
after month, the “ carnival of death ” goes on. 
Beauharnois, Malesherbes, Bailli, and thousands more 
of the best men of France, are butchered; Roland, 
Condorcet, and others perish by their own hands; 
Talleyrand is a refugee in America; and Lafayette 
pines in the dungeon vaults of Austria. Many 
noble women, too, are sacrificed. Marie Antoinette 
follows her Louis to the scaffold. Within the walls 
of the Luxembourg, where the author-hero lies in 
hourly expectation of death, are held captive two of 
the purest and noblest women that ever trod the 
earth, — the lovely and amiable Josephine Beauhar- 


26 


THOMAS PAINE, 


nois, destined to become the guiding-star of Napoleon 
and Empress of France ; and the beautiful and gifted 
Madame Roland, whose innocent blood must wet the 
cruel knife of the guillotine. 

Such was the French Revolution, — “a mighty 
truth clad in hell-fire,”— the bloodiest and yet the 
brightest page in the history of France. It might 
have been a bloodless one, it might have been a 
brighter one, had the wise and moderate counsels of 
Thomas Paine prevailed. 

Upon Paine’s release, Washington’s Minister, the 
generous Monroe, greeted him with outstretched 
arms and tendered to him the hospitalities of his 
home. The National Convention invited him to re¬ 
sume his seat in that body; and, to show that he 
harbored no revengeful feelings for the ill-treatment 
he had received, he accepted the invitation, and re¬ 
newed his labors in behalf of France. 

It was about this time that the transcendent genius 
of Napoleon Bonaparte dazzled Europe with the first 
of its splendid achievements, and by common consent 
began to control the destinies of France. For the 
talents of Paine, Napoleon entertained the pro- 
foundest respect, and gladly sought his correspond¬ 
ence and advice. As a proof of this esteem, and 
proof that Paine did not compromise his republican 
principles to secure it, I need only cite the fact that 
when the great Frenchman had matured his plans for 
the conquest of Great Britain, he selected Paine to 
prepare a popular system of government for that 
island. 


THE APO.ST L E OF LIRE R T Y. 


27 


Those who have studied the character of Napo¬ 
leon have doubtless been struck by the strange ad¬ 
mixture of two great opposing elements in his nature: 
a wild ambition on the one hand ever impelling him 
onward, and tempting him to sacrifice every princi¬ 
ple of honor for the furtherance of his mad designs; 
on the other hand, a disposition to fully recognize the 
rights of his people, even of his humblest subjects,— 
an expression of genuine sympathy for their misfor¬ 
tunes, and a manifestation of hearty satisfaction at 
their prosperity. The former wrought his ruin, the 
latter made him the idol of France. During his 
reign the French enjoyed a degree of happiness before 
unknown. That Paine was largely instrumental in 
securing this recognition of popular liberty, cannot 
be doubted. When we remember the grand princi¬ 
ples of truth, of justice, and of human rights enun¬ 
ciated in his “ Rights of Man when we remem¬ 
ber that this work was the recipient of Napoleon’s 
unbounded admiration, that during all the earlier 
part of his career it was his constant companion,—it is 
easy methinks to discern the fountain from which he 
imbibed those principles of civil liberty that formed 
the bright and better side of his character. 

At length, bowed with the weight of nearly sixty- 
six years, and tired of the perpetual turmoil of 
political life, Paine signified his intention of return¬ 
ing to America. President Jefferson sent a national 
ship to convey him home. He arrived at Baltimore 
in the autumn of 1802, and from New Hampshire to 


28 


THOMAS PAINE, 


Georgia went up the shout of patriot and the curse 
of priest. After visiting Washington, paying his 
respects to the leading members of the Government, 
and declining one of the highest offices in the power 
of the President to bestow, he retired to his home at 
New Rochelle. Here and in New York the few re¬ 
maining years of his life were passed. 

To the everlasting shame of America it must be 
said that the evening of his life was sadly embittered 
by her ingratitude. The priests were powerful then, 
and all their power was used to poison and prejudice 
the public mind against him. They could not refute 
his writings, and, to use his own words, “ When they 
found themselves unable to answer my arguments, 
they assailed my character." Of his friends, a few 
like Monroe and Jefferson remained faithful to the 
end; but many treated him with a cold indifference, 
which to his gentle, sensitive nature was doubly 
cruel. 

But death in mercy finally brought relief and rest 
to the weary, persecuted sage. In the “New York 
Advertiser” of June 9, 1809, appeared the following 
announcement: — • •* 


• THOMAS PAINE. 

“ ‘ Thy spirit. Independence, let me share.’ 

•* With heartfelt sorrow and poignant regret, we are 
compelled to announce to the world that Thomas Paine 
is no more. This distinguished philanthropist, whose 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


29 


life was devoted to the cause of humanitj’, departed this 
life yesterday morning; and, if any man’s memoiy de¬ 
served a place in the breast of a freeman, it is that of the 
deceased, for, 

“ ‘ Take him for all in all. 

We ne’er shall look upon his like again.’ ” 

Yes, death came ; but with it came no vain regrets. 
No banished Hagar with famishing infant haunted 
him; from twenty thousand blackened Midian homes 
came no phantoms to strike his soul with terror; no 
Uriah’s ghost stood before his bedside and would not 
do.\vn ; the hand that with no weapon but the pen 
had liberated millions, and made priests and mon- 
archs tremble, now growing cold and pallid, was not 
stained with the blood of a wife or child ; no agoniz¬ 
ing shrieks of a burning Servetus rang in his dying 
ears ; but bravely and composedly, with that serenity 
of soul which only the consciousness of a well-spent 
life can give, the grand old hero passed away. 

Seventy-two times had he seen the winter re¬ 
appear with its robes of snow ; seventy times have 
the snowy robes of Winter since clothed his grave. 
Robes emblematical; how white, how cold ! And 
yet not whiter than the patriot’s soul, nor colder 
than his country’s charity. 

In the cause of man the battle of his life was 
fought, — a fierce and stormy conflict. And, as the 
night of death closed over the eventful struggle, 
from her cursed abode the grim figure of Bigotry 
stalked forth, and with demoniac peals of laughter 


30 


THOMAS PAINE, 


daDced around his prostrate form, rejoicing that her 
deadliest foe was gone, and hopeful that she might 
regain the power his once-strong arm had wrested 
from her. And she triumphed ! 

“ Triumphed? Baseness triumphs for the hour ; 

But in truth lies a reserving power, 

Prejudice, ingratitude to brave : 

Though a while it undergo declension, 

From the grave it rises to ascension, 

As the sun emerges from the wave.” 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


31 


PART II. 

CHARACTER AND WORKS. 

CHAPTER r 11. 

SOCIAL QUALITIES - MORAL ATTRIBUTES - LITERARY AND 

OTHER WORKS. 

“ Not for renown, nor yet for gold, 

Did Paine assail Earth’s idols old ; 

But wealth and fame, in age and youth, 

He gave to Freedom and to Truth.” 

In person, Paine was of medium height, having 
a frank, open countenance, and a handsome, pene¬ 
trating eye. Lee and Adams used to speak of him 
as “ the man with genius in his eyes.” He was one 
of the most genial and companionable of men; of 
pleasing address and agreeable manners; the great¬ 
est wit of his age ; profoundly learned in all of 
the most useful branches of learning, his acquired 
knowledge based upon a substratum of sound, prac¬ 
tical sense ; and, possessing conversational powers of 
the highest order, he was always surrounded by a 


32 


THOMAS PAINE, 


select class of the greatest culture and refinement. 
In anticipation of a London literary dinner, Horne 
Tooke was wont to remark that “ the best thing 
would be said by Mr. Paine.” And at a levee given 
by the English author, Clio Rickman, in Paris, he is 
thus referred to : “ For above four hours he kept 
every one in astonishment and admiration of his 
memory, and his keen observation of men and man¬ 
ners. . . . His remarks on genius and taste can 
never be forgotten.” 

But it is not from a contemplation of these social 
qualities, so much as from a study of the great moral 
attributes of his character, that we are enabled to 
discern the true greatness of this remarkable man. 
Among the many noble traits united in his moral 
nature, charity, generosity, patriotism, philanthropy, 
disinterestedness, and moral courage stand out in 
bold relief. 

His charity was boundless. The poet-statesman, 
Joel Barlow, who was intimately acquainted with 
him, not only in America but in both London and 
Paris, states that “ he was always charitable to the 
poor beyond his means." 

His generosity was almost unexampled. “ Gener¬ 
ous to a fault ” was the verdict of those who knew 
him. While he did not hesitate to puncture the 
philosophy which teaches man to love his enemies, 
he was yet too magnanimous not to do good to those 
who hated him. An incident which occurred during 
his career as a member of the French Convention 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


33 


illustrates well his magnanimity of soul. A party 
were dining at a public house in Paris. The con¬ 
versation turned on the English Constitution ; and 
Paine, with his usual frankness, was not slow in 
pointing out what he considered its defects, and 
showing up the corruption of the existing govern¬ 
ment. An English officer had in the meantime 
intruded himself into the company, and, doubtless 
feeling that the weight of the whole British Govern¬ 
ment rested upon his shoulders, assailed the gray¬ 
haired representative with a storm of abusive epi¬ 
thets. The good-natured yet independent manner 
in which Paine received this abuse only increased 
the rage of the Englishman, who, walking up to 
him, struck him a violent blow with his cane. An 
excited crowd immediately rushed upon the scene 
of the brutal assault, and, but for the interference 
of Paine, would have killed the cowardly ruffian on 
the spot. He was hurried to prison, however, to 
await his trial. To strike a Member of the National 
Convention was, by the laws of France, a crime the 
punishment of which was death. The high charac¬ 
ter of Paine, together with his extreme age, rendered 
this unprovoked attack an offence peculiarly atro¬ 
cious, and it seemed impossible for anything to save 
the culprit from suffering the law’s full penalty. 
There was one man in Paris, however, who inter¬ 
ested himself in the prisoner’s behalf, and, by untir¬ 
ing efforts and great inconvenience to himself, finally 
succeeded in obtaining his release. The Englishman 
8 


34 


THOMAS PAINE, 


was rejoiced at being restored to his liberty, and 
overcome with astonishment when he learned that 
his deliverer was the man whom he had so shame¬ 
fully outraged. Nor did his -magnanimous libera¬ 
tor’s generosity end here. He was in a strange 
land, without friends, and destitute of money. To 
provide for his immediate wants, and to pay his 
passage to England, Paine generously supplied him 
with funds from his own purse. 

The patriotism of Paine was never questioned. 
Many have won the name of patriot whose services 
to their country have been inspired by mere selfish 
motives; but with him, fame, wealth, comfort, all 
were sacrificed for his country's welfare. Through¬ 
out that eight years’ struggle, his life, his time, his 
talents, all were at her service. And, whether serv¬ 
ing as aid-de-camp to Gen. Greene in that terrible 
campaign of '76; filling with distinguished ability 
the important post of Secretary of Foreign Affairs; 
with Laurens, at the French Court, negotiating loans 
for his government; or cheering the despondent, and 
nerving them up to deeds of valor by the utterance 
of brave words, — words such as never fell from the 
lips or flowed from the pen of man before, — he was 
at all times, and in every situation, the same modest, 
magnanimous, unflinching patriot. 

His philanthropy was bounded only by the limits 
of the world he lived in. The Caucasian, the Mon¬ 
golian, the African, and the Indian, all to him were 
brothers. 


THE A P O S T L E OF LIBERTY. 


35 


In his sublime disinterestedness, too, he stands 
almost alone. At the commencement of the Rev¬ 
olutionary struggle he was a poor author, lacking 
at times even the bare necessities of life. But he 
had the opportunity of becoming rich. The enor¬ 
mous sale of “Common Sense” would of itself have 
realized for him a handsome competence. But what 
did he do ? Did he appropriate to himself the profits 
to which he was justly entitled? No: he presented 
to each of the thirteen colonies the copyright, and 
came out indebted to his printer. The same unsel¬ 
fish spirit that marked the publication of “ Common 
Sense" was displayed throughout all his subsequent 
career as an author. When the “ Rights of Man " 
was ready for the press, lie refused five thousand 
dollars for the copyright, and then gave it to the 
world. The combined circulation of his four prin¬ 
cipal works, up to the time of his death, aggregated 
nearly jive hundred thousand copies. What a fortune 
was here, and how nobly, how cheerfully, was it 
given up to benefit mankind ! I must not omit to 
mention another example of his patriotic disinterest¬ 
edness. At a critical period during the War for 
Independence, when Congress was almost hopelessly 
embarrassed for want of funds, he started a subscrip¬ 
tion for its relief, heading it with five hundred dol¬ 
lars, all he had in the world. Through his exertions 
three hundred thousand pounds were raised, and 
Congress enabled to prosecute its work. 

Moral courage was another conspicuous feature 


36 


THOMAS PAINE, 


in this great man s character, — not that courage 
which plunges its possessor headlong into danger, 
but that calm fortitude which carries him serenely 
on wherever duty leads. His espousal of the cause 
of Separation and Independence — a cause which no 
other man in America had up to that time dared to 
espouse — shows a lofty heroism; his attack upon 
monarchy in the very capital of England itself, 
knowing as he must have known that every effort 
would be made by the Government to crush both 
him and his book, was a grand exhibition of moral 
bravery; while the publication of his “ Age of 
Reason ” was in many respects a more courageous 
act than either. But it was in his heroic defence 
of Louis XVI. that his moral courage shone with all 
the lustre of the noonday sun. Search all the annals 
of the past, and say if on the historian’s page is found 
one act, one single act, surpassing in moral sublimity 
that of Thomas Paine’s bravely accepting a prison 
and death to save a fallen foe! 

In the expression of his religious opinions, no man 
has been more frank or explicit than Paine, and no 
man’s religious opinions have been more grossly 
misrepresented. What was his belief? 

“ I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope 
for happiness beyond this life. 

“ I believe in the equality of man; and I believe 
that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving 
mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures 
happy. 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


37 


“The world is my country, to do good my religion .” 

This was his creed, and to this creed he faithfully 
adhered to the last moment of his life. As to the 
merits of this religious belief, whether it be true or 
false, good or bad, is not for me to determine. I 
may say, however, and that without fear of refuta¬ 
tion, that not one of his maligners has ever given 
evidence of possessing a better. 

As a writer, Paine has few superiors in our lan¬ 
guage. His style unites in a remarkable degree a 
marvellous simplicity, a rare beauty and delicacy of 
thought, an exquisite rhetorical finish, and a force of 
logic that carries conviction with every sentence. 
“ What I write is pure nature, and my pen and my 
soul have ever gone together.” This was the one 
great secret of his success. 

It is upon his four works already named that his 
fame as an author most securely rests. In another 
place, more space will be given to a consideration of 
these masterly productions. In addition to these, 
he wrote several other works on theology and civil 
government, among which may be named “ An 
Essay on Dreams,” “ Examination of the Prophe¬ 
cies,” “ Letter to Camille Jordan,” “ Dissertation 
on First Principles of Government,” and “ Agrarian 
Justice,” all of which possess rare merit. 

But, had his great political and theological works 
never appeared, he would still be entitled to a grate¬ 
ful remembrance. As a poet, 

“ He knew himself to sing and build the lofty rhyme.” 


38 


THOMAS 


PAINE, 

His poem on the “Death of General Wolfe” has 
been pronounced one of the most beautiful produc¬ 
tions of the sort in the English language. Another 
writer says that u nothing could be more beautiful 
than either Paine’s poetry or prose.” As a specimen 
of his poetical composition, I here insert his 

LINES TO LADY SMITH. 

In the regions of clouds where the whirlwinds arise, 

My castle of fancy was built; 

The turrets reflected the blue of the skies, 

And the windows with sunbeams were gilt. 

The rainbow sometimes, in its beautiful state, 

Enamelled the mansion around; 

And the figures that fancy in clouds can create 
Supplied me with gardens and ground. 

I had grottos and fountains and orange-tree groves, 

I had all that enchantment has told; 

I had sweet, shady walks for the gods and their loves, 

I had mountains of coral and gold. 

But a storm that I felt not had risen and rolled 
While wrapt in a slumber I lay; 

And when I looked out in the morning, behold! 

My castle was carried away. 

It passed over rivers and valleys and groves; 

The world it was all in my view; 

I thought of my friends, of their fates, of their loves, 

And often, full often, of you. 

At length it came over a beautiful scene, 

That nature in silence had made: 

The place was but small; but ’twas sweetly serene, 

And checkered with sunshine and shade. 

I gazed and I envied with painful good-will, 

And grew tired of my seat in the air, 

When all of a sudden my castle stood still, 

As if some attraction were there. 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


89 


Like a lark from the sky it came fluttering down, 
And placed me exactly in view, 

When whom should I meet in this charming retreat, 
This corner of calmness, but you! 

Delighted to find you in honor and ease, 

I felt no more sorrow nor pain; 

And, the wind coming fair, I ascended the breeze, 
And went back with my castle again. 


His contributions to hygienic science were valu¬ 
able. In naval affairs and engineering he made 
important suggestions, while in finances he was 
recognized as an able authority. It may be men¬ 
tioned, too, that he was the first paid editor in 
America, and thus the founder of this profession 
as distinct from publisher. 

In mechanics, Paine’s name occupies a prominent 
place. He was the inventor of the iron bridge ; and 
the magnificent structures that now span nearly 
every stream of Europe and America stand as so 
many monuments to his mechanical genius. This 
invention secured for him a favorable recognition 
by the French Academy of Science, and received at 
once the unqualified approval of many of the most 
distinguished men of France and England. For the 
models of his bridge he was offered three thousand 
pounds. The planing-machine, too, was invented 
by him; and to him must also be ascribed the credit 
of having been the first to propose that wonderful 
creation of the present age, — the steamboat. To 
his thoughts upon this subject, published in 1778, 
is doubtless largely due the final success of Fulton 
in 1807. 


40 


THOMAS PAINE, 


I cannot close this part of mv subject without 
noticing another event with which Paine’s name is 
intimately associated. I refer to the abolition of 
slavery in the United States. To him more than 
to any other man belongs the honor of inaugurating 
the anti-slavery crusade. He was its first bold 
advocate, — the first man on this continent who 
dared to write, 44 Man has no property in man.” 
And though he did not live to see his country admit 
the full equality of man, the cause did not die with 
him. The same year that witnessed his death wit¬ 
nessed the birth of him who was to complete the 
work. Paine and Lincoln ! Among the world’s 
great benefactors these men stand proudly forward. 
Both were of humble origin, both self-made men. 
Both were distinguished advocates of human free¬ 
dom, prompted by the most unselfish motives and 
the loftiest philanthropic principles. Both felt the 
ruthless hand of the assassin: the one was cruelly 
robbed of his life; the other as cruelly robbed of 
what to him was dearer than life, — his honor. Both 
were unbelievers in the narrow creeds of their day, 
but glorious apostles of that diviner faith, the re¬ 
ligion of humanity: — 

“ The would is my country, to do good my 

RELIGION.” 

44 With malice toward none, with charity 

FOR ALL.” 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


41 


Grand thoughts ! Let them be engraved together 
on the tablets of our hearts, and let not prejudice 
separate in our affections the immortal names of 
those who uttered them ! 


42 


THOMAS PAINE, 


CHAPTER IV. 

“ COMMON SENSE ”-“ AMERICAN CRISIS ”- “ RIGHTS OF 

man”-“AGE OF REASON.” 


Brave ‘ Common Sense ’ the cause of liberty proclaimed, 
The ‘ Crisis ’ won for us the boon that volume named; 
The * Rights of Man ’ to tyranny its death-knell gave, 
The ‘ Age of Reason ’ made for bigotry its grave.” 


Before me lie the four great works of Thomas 
Paine. You who have never read them may be¬ 
lieve that they contain much that is bad ; you may 
imagine that a deadly serpent lurks within them. 
Let me assure you that there is nothing in these 
works that can harm you. The cold, slimy touch 
of the serpent is not here. The highest moral tone 
pervades these pages. They are full of charity, they 
glow with patriotism, they are warm with love. 
Even now, within their lids methinks I feel the 
beating of the generous heart of him who penned 
them, — every throb pregnant with the highest, 
holiest aspirations for the good of man. 

His works are his monument, and, were they uni¬ 
versally known, futile would be the cavillings of his 
enemies, needless the eulogies of his friends. 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


43 


To enable the reader to form a faint conception of 
the style and character of Paine’s writings, I intro¬ 
duce a few selections from his leading works. And 
first I quote from 44 Common Sense ” : — 

44 The birthday of a new world is at hand ; and a race 
of men, perhaps as numerous as all Europe contains, are 
to receive their portion of freedom from the events of a 
lew months.” 

44 The sun never shone on a cause of greater worth. 
’Tis not the affair of a city, a county, a province, or a 
kingdom, but of a continent, —of at least one-eighth part 
of the habitable globe. ’Tis not the concern of a da3q a 
year, or an age ; posterity are virtually involved in the 
contest, and will be more or less affected, even to the end 
of time, by the proceedings now.” 

44 I am not induced by motives of pride, party, or re¬ 
sentment to espouse the doctrine of separation and inde¬ 
pendence ; I am clearly, positively, and conscientiously 
persuaded that it is the true interest of this continent to 
be so.” 

44 In no instance hath Nature made the satellite larger 
than its primary planet; and as England and America, 
with respect to each other, reverse the common order of 
Nature, it is evident that they belong to different systems, 
—England to Europe, America to itself.” 

44 4 But Britain is the parent country,’ say some. Then 
the more shame upon her conduct. Even brutes do not 


44 


THOMAS PAINE, 


devour their young, nor savages make war upon their 
families.” 

4 ‘ The independence of America should have been con¬ 
sidered as dating its era from, and published by, the first 
musket that was fired against her.” 

“ Everything that is right or natural pleads for separa¬ 
tion. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature 
cries, ’Tis time to part.” 

“ Oh, ye that love mankind ! Ye that dare oppose, not 
only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Every 
spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Free¬ 
dom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia and Africa 
have long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stran¬ 
ger, and England hath given her warning to depart. Oh, 
receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for 
mankind.” 

Laying aside the tiny volume, “ Common Sense,” 
I next take up his more elaborate “ Crisis”: — 

“ These are the times that try men’s souls. The sum¬ 
mer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, 
shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands 
it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. 
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered ; 3'et we have 
this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict the 
more glorious the triumph.” 

“ A generous parent should say, ‘ If there must be 
trouble, let it be in m3' day, that m3' child ma3' have 
peace.’ ” 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


45 


‘ 4 The heart that feels not now is dead: the blood of 
his children will curse his cowardice who shrinks back 
at a time when a little might have saved the whole and 
made them happy. I love the man that can smile in 
trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow 
brave by reflection. ’Tis the business of little minds to 
shrink ; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience 
approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto 
death.” 

4 4 He that rebels against reason is a real rebel; but he 
that in defence of reason rebels against tyranny, has a 
better title to 4 Defender of the Faith ’ than George the 
Third.” 

44 To argue with a man who has renounced the use and 
authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in 
holding humanity in contempt, is like administering med¬ 
icine to the dead.” 

4 * The poor reflection of having served } r our king will 
yield you no consolation in your parting moments. He 
will crunible to the same undistinguished ashes with your¬ 
self, and have sins enough of his own to answer for. It 
is not the farcical benedictions of a bishop, nor the cring¬ 
ing hypocrisy of a court of chaplains, nor the formality of 
an act of parliament, that can change guilt into innocence, 
or make the punishment one pang the less.” 

44 There are cases in which it is as impossible to restore 
character to life as it is to recover the dead. It is a 
phoenix that can expire but once, and from whose ashes 
there is no resurrection.” 


46 


THOMAS PAINE, 


44 It was not Newton's honor, neither could it be his 
pride, that he was born an Englishman, but that he was 
a philosopher. The heavens had liberated him from the 
prejudices of an island, and science had expanded his 
soul, as boundless as his studies.” 

k ‘ The war, on the part of America, has been a war of 
natural feelings, — brave in distress, serene in conquest, 
drowsy while at rest, and in every situation generously 
disposed to peace. A dangerous calm and a most height¬ 
ened zeal have, as circumstances varied, succeeded each 
other. Every passion but that of despair has been called 
to a tour of dut} r ; and so mistaken has been the enemy 
of our abilities and disposition, that when she supposed 
us conquered we rose the conquerors.” 

4 ' They were witnesses to the almost expiring tiame of 
human freedom. It was the close struggle of life and 
death, — the line of invisible division, and on which the 
unabated fortitude of a Washington prevailed, and saved 
the spark that has since blazed in the north with un¬ 
rivalled lustre.” 

k 4 The times that tried men’s souls are over; and the 
greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew, 
gloriously and happily accomplished.” 

44 The will of God hath parted us, and the deed is 
registered for eternity. When Britain shall be a spot 
scarcely visible among the nations, America shall tiourisli 
the favorite of Heaven and the friend of mankind.” 

44 It is not every countr}', perhaps there is not another 
in the world, that can boast so fair an origin. Even the 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


47 


first settlement of America corresponds with the character 
of the Revolution. Rome, once the proud mistress of the 
universe, was originally a band of ruffians. Plunder and 
rapine made her rich, and her oppression of millions 
made her great. But America need never be ashamed 
to tell her birth, nor relate the stages by which she rose 
to empire.” 

“ She is now descending to the scenes of quiet and 
domestic life, — not beneath the cypress shade of disap¬ 
pointment. but to enjo}* in her own land, and under her own 
vine, the sweet of her labors and the reward of her toil. 
In this situation ma} T she never forget that a fair national 
reputation is of as much importance as independence; 
that it possesses a charm that wins upon the world, and 
makes even enemies civil; that it gives a dignity that is 
often superior to power, and commands reverence where 
pomp and splendor fail.” 

“ Our lot is cast, and America, the child of fate, is 

arriving at maturity.Too great to yield, and too 

noble to insult; superior to misfortune, and generous in 
success, — let us untaintedly preserve the character we 
have gained, and show to future ages an example of un¬ 
equalled magnanimity.” 

Closing the “ Crisis,” I open now that fountain of 
human liberty, the Rights of Man.” Overflowing 
with truth, we can but taste its sparkling waters: — 

“ I am contending for the right of the living, and 
against their being willed away, and controlled and con- 



48 


T H O M AS PAINE, 


tracted for by the manuscript-assumed authority of the 
dead; and Mr. Burke is contending for the authority of 
the dend over the rights and freedom of the living.” 

“ Those who have quitted the world, and those who are 
not arrived yet in it, are as remote from each other as the 
utmost stretch of mortal imagination can conceive. What 
possible obligation, then, can exist between them? What 
rule or principle can be laid down that two nonentities, 
the one out of existence and the other not yet in, and who 
never can meet in this world, that the one should control 
the other to the end of time ? ” 

“ The circumstances of the world are continually chang¬ 
ing, and the opinions of men change also ; and, as govern¬ 
ment is for the living and not for the dead, it is the living 
only that have any right in it. That which may be thought 
right and found convenient in one age, may be thought 
wrong and found inconvenient in another. In such cases 
who is to decide, — the living or the dead? ” 

u I know a place in America called Point-no-Point, 
because, as you proceed along the shore, gay and flower } 7 
as Mr. Burke’s language, it continually recedes and pre¬ 
sents itself at a distance ahead; and when you have got 
as far as you can go, there is no point at all. Just thus 
is it with Mr. Burke’s three hundred and fifty-six pages.” 

“ Not one glance of compassion, not one commiserating 
reflection, that I can find throughout his book, has he be¬ 
stowed on those that lingered out the most wretched of 
lives, a life without hope, in the most miserable of prisons. 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


49 


It is painful to behold a man employing his talents to cor¬ 
rupt himself. Nature has been kinder to Mr. Burke than 
he has been to her. He is not affected b} T the reality of 
distress touching upon his heart, but by the showy re¬ 
semblance of it striking his imagination. He pities the 
plumage, but forgets the dying bird. Accustomed to kiss 
the aristocratic hand that hath purloined him from him¬ 
self, he degenerates into a composition of art, and the 
genuine soul of nature forsakes him. His hero or his 
heroine must be a tragedy-victim, expiring in show, and 
not the real prisoner of miser}', sliding into death in the 
silence of a dungeon." 

44 The mind can hardly picture to itself a more tre¬ 
mendous scene than what the city of Paris exhibited at 
the time of taking the Bastile, and for two days before 
and after, nor conceive the possibilit}' of its quieting 
so soon. At a distance, this transaction has appeared 
only as an act of heroism standing on itself: and the 
close political connection it had with the Revolution is 
lost in the brilliancy of the achievement. But we are to 
consider it as the strength of the parties, brought man to 
man, and contending for the issue. The Bastile was to 
be either the prize or the prison of the assailants. The 
downfall of it included the idea of the downfall of despot¬ 
ism ; and this compounded image was become as figura¬ 
tively united as Bunyan’s Doubting Castle and Giant 
Despair.” 

“ But. after all. what is this metaphor called a crown, 
or rather what is monarchy? Is it a thing, or is it a name, 
or is it a fraud? Is it a ‘ contrivance of human wisdom,’ 
or human craft, to obtain money from a nation under 


50 


THOMAS PAINE, 


specious pretences? Is it a thing necessary to a nation? 
If it is, in what does that necessity consist, what service 
does it perform, what is its business, and what are its 
merits? Doth the virtue consist in the metaphor or in 
the man? Doth the goldsmith that makes the crown 
make the virtue also? Doth it operate like Fortunatus’s 
wishing-cap, or Harlequin’s wooden sword? Doth it 
make a man a conjurer? In fine, what is it?” 

“ The greatest characters the world has known have 
risen on the democratic floor. Aristocracy has not been 
able to keep a proportionate pace with democracy. The 
artificial noble shrinks into a dwarf beside the noble of 
nature.” 

“ Such is the irresistible nature of truth that all it asks, 
and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing. The Sun 
needs no inscription to distinguish him from darkness.” 

“ With respect to what are called denominations of 
religion, if every one is left to judge of his own religion, 
there is no such thing as a religion that is wrong; but if 
they are to judge of each other’s religion, there is no such 
thing as a religion that is right, and therefore all the 
world is right, or all the world is wrong. But with 
respect to religion itself, without regard to names, 
and as directing itself from the universal family of 
mankind to the Divine object of all adoration, it is man 
bringing to his Maker the fruits of his heart; and, though 
these fruits may differ from each other like the fruits of 
the earth, the grateful tribute of every one is accepted.” 


“Every religion is good that teaches man to he good.” 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


51 


“ Who art thou, vain dust and ashes! by whatever 
name thou art called, — whether a king, a bishop, a church 
or a state, a parliament or anything else, —that obtrudest 
thine insignificance between the soul of man and his 
Maker? ” 

For my own part, 1 am fully satisfied that what 1 am 
now' doing — with an endeavor to conciliate mankind, to 
render their condition happy, to unite nations that have 
hitherto been enemies, and to extirpate the horrid practice 
of war, and break the chains of slavery and oppression— 
is acceptable in His sight; and, being the best service I 
can perform, I act it cheerfully." 

“ In taking up this subject, I seek no recompense, I 
fear no consequences. P^ortified with that proud integrity 
that disdains to triumph or to yield, I will advocate the 
rights of man.” 

“ When, in countries that are called civilized, we see 
age going to the workhouse, and youth to the gallows, 
something must be wrong in the system of government.” 

“ When it shall be said in any country in the world, 
‘ My poor are happy : neither ignorance nor distress is to 
be found among them ; my jails are empty of prisoners, 
my streets of beggars ; the aged are not in want, the taxes 
are not oppressive ; the rational world is my friend, be¬ 
cause I am the friend of its happiness,’—when these things 
can be said, then may that country boast of its constitu¬ 
tion and its government.” 

“ Governments now act as if they were afraid to awaken 
a single reflection in man. They are softly leading him 


52 


THOMAS PAIN E , 


to the sepulchre of precedents, to deaden his faculties and 
call his attention from the scenes of revolutions. They 
feel that he is arriving at knowledge faster than they 
wish, and their policy of precedents is the barometer of 
their fears. This political popery, like the ecclesiastical 
popery of old, has had its day, and is hastening to its 
exit. The ragged relic and the antiquated precedent, 
the monk and the monarch, will moulder together.” 

A few passages from the *• Age of Reason ” close 
our quotations from Paine. While they are suffi¬ 
cient to fairly present his leading theological prin¬ 
ciples, they are entirely inadequate to give even an 
idea of the full aim and scope of his work. The 
“ Age of Reason ” must be read to be understood or 
appreciated: — 

‘*lt has been my intention for several years past to 
publish my thoughts upon religion. I am well aware of the 
difficulties that attend the subject, and from that consid¬ 
eration had reserved it to a more advanced period of life. 
I intended it to be the last offering I should make to my 
fellow-citizens of all nations, and that at a time when 
the purity of the motive that induced me to it could not 
admit of a question, even by those who might disapprove 
the work.” 

“ As several of my colleagues, and others of my fellow- 
citizens of France, have given me the example of making 
their voluntary and individual profession of faith, I also 
will make mine ; and I do this with all that sincerity and 
frankness with which the mind of man communicates with 
itself: — 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


53 


‘ ‘ I believe in one God and no more; and I hope for 
happiness beyond this life. 

‘ ‘ I believe in the equality of man ; and I believe that 
religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, 
and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.” 

“ I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish 
Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by 
the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church. My own 
mind is m3' own church.” 

“ I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those 
who believe otherwise; the}' have the same right to their 
belief as I have to mine. But it is necessar}' to the hap¬ 
piness of man that he be mentall}' faithful to himself.” 

“ I have alwa}*s strenuously supported the right of 
ever}' man to his opinion, however different that opinion 
might be to mine. He who denies to another this, makes 
a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he 
precludes himself the right of changing it.” 

‘ ‘ The most formidable weapon against errors of every 
kind is Reason. I have never used any other, and I 
trust I never shall.” 

“ 1 know that this bold investigation will alarm many, 
but it would be paying too great a compliment to their 
credulity to forbear it on that account; the times and the 
subject demand it to be done.” 

“ Nothing that is here said can apply, even with the 
most distant disrespect, to the real character of Jesus 
Christ. He was a virtuous and an amiable man.” 


54 


THOMAS PAINE, 


“ The Word of God is the creation we behold. And 
it is in this Word, which no human invention can counter¬ 
feit or alter, that God speaketh universally to man.” 

44 It is only in the creation that all our ideas and con¬ 
ceptions of a Word of God can unite. The creation speak¬ 
eth an universal language, independently of human speech 
or human language, multiplied and various as they be. 
It is an ever-existing original, which every man can read. 
It cannot be forged, it cannot be counterfeited, it cannot 
be lost, it cannot be altered, it cannot be suppressed. It 
docs not depend upon the will of man whether it shall be 
published or not; it publishes itself from one end of the 
earth to the other. It preaches to all nations and to all 
worlds.” 

“ Do we want to contemplate His power? We see it 
in the unchangeable order by which the incomprehensible 
whole is governed. Do we want to contemplate His 
munificence? We see it in the abundance with w r hich 
He fills the earth. Do we want to contemplate His 
mercy? We see it in His not withholding that abund¬ 
ance even from the unthankful.” 

4 4 Any system of religion that has anything in it that 
shocks the mind of a child cannot be a true system.” 

Paine was the prophet of his age. From the dim 
twilight of the eighteenth century, his keen eye 
pierced through the intervening years to and be¬ 
yond the gray dawn of the twentieth ; and as he 
traced the progress, and saw revealed the destiny, 
of man, his clarion voice 

‘‘ Rang out the Old, rang in the New,” — 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


55 


rang out the phantoms born of ignorance and fear; 
rang out despotic rule, — rang in the good, the true; 
rang in Humanity ! 

1 do not hesitate to affirm that, from among all 
the literary productions of modern times, there can¬ 
not be found four works that have exerted a more 
powerful influence in shaping the destinies of the 
kiman race than these. “ Common Sense ” was the 
glorious sun that ushered in a New World of Free¬ 
dom, — each number of the “ Crisis,” a brilliant 
satellite that helped to illume that New World’s 
long night of revolution. 

The “Rights of Man” is one of the noblest 
works ever written. No lover of liberty ever 
perused its pages without thanking in his heart 
the brave author who penned them. Amid the 
ravages of time, this work, like other great works 
that preceded it, may disappear from the libraries of 
men ; but the principles embodied in it will live on. 
The chaste and simple words that clothe them may 
be forgotten, but the principles themselves can never 
die. They have produced an agitation in the broad 
ocean of humanity whose waves will sweep down 
through all the coming years. 

The “Age of Reason ” was the crowning effort of 
its author’s life. Eighty-five years since it was 
given to the world, the demand for it continues to 
increase ; and not until the dominant religion of 
Europe and America shall either perish from the 
oarth or sweep to universal empire will this demand 


56 


THOMAS PAINE, 


subside. Around it has raged one of the fiercest 
intellectual conflicts of the age. All the artillery 
of Christendom has been brought to bear upon it, 
but thus far without effect. Firm, impregnable, like 
some Gibraltar, it still stands unharmed. 


THE 


APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


57 


i 

3? .A. R T III. 

v 

VINDICATION. 


C H A B T E R V. 

EXAMINATION OF CALUMNIES. 


“ For the right, Thomas Paine comes uppermost. 
As round and round we go. 

The heel of a priest may tread thee down. 

And a bigot work thee woe. 

‘ But never a truth has been destroyed: 

They may curse it and call it crime; 
Pervert and betray, or slander and slay 
Its teachers for a time; 

But the sunshine, aye, shall light the sky, 

As round and round we run; 

And the truth shall ever come uppermost, 

And justice shall be done.’ ” 


A little child is sweetly sleeping in its cradle, 
the very ideal of beauty, health, and innocence. Its 
parents have died, and left it sole heir to a goodly 
fortune. If it die, the parties to whose care it has 
been intrusted—those whose duty it is to protect 
it — will inherit this wealth. A terrible design i» 



58 


THOMAS PAINE, 


formed: the child is taken from its peaceful slum¬ 
ber, hurriedly borne to a stream near by, and tossed 
far out into the dark waters. Its would-be murderers 
stand upon the brink to watch the result of their 
base plot. Unobserved, I stand upon the bank below. 
The clothing of the child keeps it from sinking, 
and the current bears it gently down the stream. 
It nears me. What shall I do ? Shall I attempt 
the rescue of that child, or shall I let it perish? 
Without a moment’s hesitation I plunge into the 
water, bring it safely to the shore, and place it far 
beyond the reach of danger. 

A great man is sleeping in his grave. A life 
fraught with noble, self-sacrificing deeds in behalf of 
humanity, entitles him to the everlasting gratitude 
of man. But bad, designing men have sought to 
rob his memory of this just inheritance. They have 
opened the portals of his tomb, and desecrated that 
sacred sanctuary; they have taken his fair name, and 
hurled it far out into the black waters of infamy; 
they stand upon the shore, and watch with eager 
eye to see it sink from sight. Down the current of 
the century it glides. We see it now: those inky 
waters have not yet completely dimmed its lustre. 
What shall we do : shall we save that name, or shall 
we suffer it to perish ? Brave men have already 
gone to the rescue, and shall we hesitate to follow ? 
No! Let us bring it to the shore, clear it of every 
stain, bear it away in triumph, and place it far, far 
beyond the reach of calumny and slander. 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


59 


There are, I regret to say, many good and honest 
people who believe Thomas Paine to have been a 
very bad man. They have heard this from the lips 
of those in whose veracity they place implicit confi¬ 
dence. While from infancy they have been taught 
to regard Jesus Christ as the Mediator between man 
and God, they have at the same time been led to 
consider Thomas Paine as a sort of negotiator 
between man and the Devil. 

Let me say to these good people, Do you know 
why Paine has been so fiercely assailed? You have 
heard various charges preferred against him ; but 
seriously, now, do you believe any of the charges 
named sufficient to account for the intense hatred 
manifested toward him ? Have you never been 
struck with the thought that there might be some¬ 
thing back of all this, some secret grudge, which your 
informants dare not mention ? Let us notice briefly 
these faults and vices imputed to him. 

You have been told that he died a pauper. The 
parties who told you this were certainly mistaken. 
Upon his return to America in 1802, the estate pre¬ 
sented to him, in consideration of his Revolutionary 
services, was valued at $30,000 ; and this, together 
with a considerable sum in stocks and money, was 
remaining at his death. It is doubtless true that 
during his long and useful career he was many times 
in straitened circumstances; but this was the re¬ 
sult, not of improvidence or reckless expenditure, 
but of the devotion of his life to the cause of hu- 


60 


T H O M A S P A I N K « 


manity instead of the accumulation of wealth, and 
his unbounded charity, which prompted him to share 
his last dollar or his last comfort with the poor or 
distressed. But what if he had died poor ? Is 
poverty a crime ? 

You havevbeen told that he died a drunkard. A 
baser slander was never uttered. His neighbors and 
acquaintances all indignantly denied the truth of this 
imputation. The proprietor of the house in New 
York at which Paine spent much of his time, during 
his last years, stated that of all his guests he was the 
most temperate. But suppose that he was a drunk¬ 
ard ; is drunkenness so rare as to secure for its vic¬ 
tims an immortal notoriety ? 

You have been told that his writings are immoral. 
I defy those who make this charge to point to one 
immoral sentence in all that he has written; and I 
further affirm that they dare not permit you to deter¬ 
mine for yourselves the truth or falsity of this asser¬ 
tion. But admitting, for the sake of argument, the 
charge to be true, does not the world teem with 
immoral literature? Are there not many immoral 
writers even among the living ? If so, why has all 
this wrath been concentrated upon Paine, to the 
almost total exclusion of the rest? 

You have been told that he was an Infidel. But 
what peculiar significance do they attach to this fact ? 
Are not four-fifths of the world’s inhabitants Infi¬ 
dels? Does not every one of our greatest living 
scholars — Darwin and Draper, Huxley and Haeckel, 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


61 


Spencer and Tyndall — go far beyond him in point of 
Infidelity ? Why this exclusiveness again ? 

You have been told that he recanted on his death¬ 
bed. This statement has been widely disseminated, 
and that, too, in spite of the fact that every person 
who was with him during his dying hours pronounced 
it false. An honest Quaker, who visited him often 
during his last illness, testified to having been offered 
money to publicly state that such was the case; but 
he refused. Others were doubtless approached in 
the same manner, and with the same result. Un¬ 
able to find a death-bed witness base enough to 
make so foul a charge, the calumny was originated 
by one who did not see him die. A priest’s brain 
conceived and bore that infamous falsehood ; and, 
black and hideous as the offspring was, nearly every 
other priest was ready to serve it in the capacity of a 
faithful nurse. But suppose that he did recant,— 
that he acknowledged the divinity of Christ: if he 
did this, he died virtually in the Christian faith. Now, 
is it customary for the Church to treat death-bed 
penitents in the manner in which he has been treated ? 
Has not every criminal that has repented in his last 
hours, from the dying thief of eighteen hundred 
years ago to the murderer of to-day, been held up 
as an object of admiration? Why, then, denounce 
Paine for having done, as they claim, the very same 
thing ? Is this consistent ? 

And now, assuming all these charges to be true, 
he would still have been naught but a poor, drunken 


62 


THOMAS PAINE, 


Infidel; and, while this would naturally have sub¬ 
jected him to much adverse criticism while living, 
it would have been merely of a local character, and 
would have ceased when he was no more. Death 
would have silenced censure, the mantle of char¬ 
ity would have been spread above his grave, and the 
waves of oblivion would have rolled over his mem¬ 
ory long ago. Is it possible that all Christendom 
would be so deeply agitated, — that the walls of her 
churches echo every week with the fierce anathemas 
thundered from a thousand pulpits against the in¬ 
animate dust of a poor, drunken Infidel ? 

The conclusion, I think, must irresistibly force 
itself upon your mind that these reputed faults do 
not constitute the real “ head and front of Thomas 
Paine’s offending.” Is there not to you something 
mysterious about all this ? And would you have the 
mystery solved? If so, read the “Age of Reason.” 
Read it carefully, thoughtfully, critically; read it 
with your Bible open before you; read it in connec¬ 
tion with the ablest refutations that have been at¬ 
tempted against it. Do this, and the mystery will 
be solved; you will then know why Thomas Paine 
has been so bitterly assailed. 

Two champions meet in the arena of debate. One 
of them is overwhelmed; smiles and groans an¬ 
nounce his discomfiture, while the hall resounds with 
the shouts of applause that reward the triumph of his 
rival. Then one of them grows angry, and, stung 
with madness, drops the sword of argument, and 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


63 


seizes in its stead the bludgeon of malice, with which 
to assail his adversary. But which one does this, 
— the successful or the defeated antagonist? I 
have somewhere read that “the proud bird that 
soars on pinions strong and free, and is not hit by the 
marksman’s bullet, is not discomposed ; ” that “ it is 
the wounded bird that flutters” 

That Thomas Paine was not the poor, drunken, 
immoral wretch that clerical virulence represents 
him to have been, the proof furnished in the con¬ 
sideration paid to him, by prominent characters con¬ 
temporaneous with him, should be conclusive. Would 
Benjamin Franklin have furnished letters of introduc¬ 
tion to a poor, drunken, immoral wretch? Would 
Lord Erskine have defended, against the government 
of England, a poor, drunken, immoral wretch? 
Would Bishop Watson have crossed swords, in theo¬ 
logical disputation, with a poor, drunken, immoral 
wretch? Would Napoleon Bonaparte, when in the 
zenith of his glory, have invited to his table a poor, 
drunken, immoral wretch ? Would France’s greatest 
heroines, Roland and De Stael, have stooped to pay the 
tribute of praise to a poor, drunken, immoral wretch ? 
Would the Christian statesman, James Monroe, have 
retained for more than a year as a member of his 
household a poor, drunken, immoral wretch ? Would 
Thomas Jefferson have sent a National ship to bear 
to his home a poor, drunken, immoral wretch? 
Would Washington have acknowledged, as one of 
the most potent factors in achieving American In- 


64 THOMAS PAINE, 

dependence, the pen of a poor, drunken, immoral 
wretch? Would the Congress of the United States 
have conferred honors and bestowed gifts upon a 
poor, drunken, immoral wretch? 


THE APOSTLE OE LIBERTY. 


65 


CHAPTER VI. 

TESTIMONIALS TO PAINE’S CHARACTER. 

“ We fear no foe, we flee no fight, 

While thus we honor slandered right; 

For truth we brave our foes again, 

And fight for justice and for Paine ! ” 


The ass was bravest when the lion could no 
longer defend himself; and the 8th of June, 1809, 
marks the era of increased vituperation against the 
name of Thomas Paine. For more than two-thirds 
of a century the world has listened to the brays and 
witnessed the kicks of a thousand brave asses against 
liberty’s dead lion. 

The savage mutilates the dead body of his victim, 
the hyena digs into the grave and devours its con¬ 
tents ; but worse, and more to be abhorred than 
either, is the murderer of dead men’s reputations. 
For him no crime is too black, no deed too despic¬ 
able. How often do we see one of these vile assas¬ 
sins take up the good name of Thomas Paine, and, 
after covering it with all the filth and slime that the 
hellish, venomous spirit of calumny can distil, hold 
it up before the world, and with a counterfeited 


66 


THOMAS PAINE, 


look of holy horror — affecting all the meekness of 
an expiring calf, and rolling up the whites of his 
snaky eyes to cover the blackness of his brutal soul, 
— exclaim, “This is a fiend ! ” 

No civilized court pronounces a prisoner guilty 
without allowing him the privilege of a defence. 
None but a barbarous despot does this, and it is by 
such a barbarous court that Thomas Paine has been 
convicted. Witness this half-farcical, half-tragical 
trial. A dead man is dragged from his grave, and 
arraigned before this despotic tribunal. In his ac¬ 
cuser we behold some clerical hypocrite, who 

“ Practises falsehood under saintly show, 

Deep malice to conceal couched with revenge.” 

Before him lies a copy of Cheetham’s “ Life of 
Paine,”—a work which a distinguished clergyman 
characterized as “a libel almost from beginning to 
end; ” a work written by a man who boasted of 
having nine suits for libel pending against him at 
one time, — a man who was tried, found guilty, and 
sentenced to pay a fine for defamation of a woman’s 
character ; a man who was the notorious maligner 
of Franklin and Jefferson: this the evidence ad¬ 
duced. One libeller endeavoring to impeach the 
character of an honest man by quoting the testimony 
of another libeller! But the evidence is deemed 
sufficient; and when some friend of justice rises 
to interpose a word in defence of the slandered, 
outraged man, from this haughty despot comes 


THE APOSTLE OE LIBERTY. 


67 


the imperial mandate, “ No defence allowed. Ac¬ 
cursed be he who offers aught in palliation of the 
culprit’s crimes! Thomas Paine, you are adjudged 
guilty. This court condemns your memory to ever¬ 
lasting infamy on earth, and prays its God to consign 
your soul to endless misery in hell! ” 

From this arbitrary court I appeal the case of 
Thomas Paine to a higher court, — a court whose 
judge and jury shall be a generous public. Against 
the false and malicious statements of this base hire¬ 
ling, this convicted libeller, James Cheetham, and the 
puny miscreants whose slanderous tongues delight 
to echo his calumnies, I bring the evidence of one 
hundred good and competent witnesses,— those who, 
by intimate acquaintance or a careful study of 
Paine’s history, are eminently qualified for making 
an intelligent, unbiassed estimate of his life and 
works; historians, statesmen, divines, and others; 
men and women who have acquired an honorable 
distinction in the various walks of life, and whose 
names alone are a sufficient guaranty that what they 
testify shall be “the truth, the whole truth, and 
nothing but the truth.” From the dead and from 
the living — from two continents — I summon them; 
and, as one by one their names are called, let them 
respond: — 

Gilbert Yale:— '“What an amalgamation do the 
slanderers of Paine present! — the young girl of pious 
education vociferating Tom Paine; the pious teacher, 


68 


THOMAS PAINE, 


perhaps also deceived, but without examination, preach¬ 
ing from the pulpit that the opponent of the Gospel 
scheme lived and died a degraded, drunken being! To 
these are added the arch-hypocrite who knows the slan¬ 
der, but from -interested motives joins the bitter cry of 
Tom Paine and inebriety. To these again are added the 
thousands of decent people of all religions, who, finding 
it fashionable to pronounce the name of Paine with a 
sneer, generously believe what everybody sa}’s.” 

“ This [Paine’s will] falsifies at once Mr. Paine’s pov¬ 
erty.” 

“We know that he was not 011I3' temperate in after¬ 
life, but even abstemious. 

“We know more than twenty persons who were more 
or less acquainted with Mr. Paine, and not one of whom 
ever saw him in liquor.” 

“ Those who have attacked his style are themselves 
ignorant or vicious, with no literary character to lose. 

“ This attack on his literary character, successful in an 
extraordinary degree, depended on the suppression of his 
works ; the presumption of the ignorance of those works 
by the body of the party addressed ; and on the assump¬ 
tion of the power of the clergy to prevent those works 
being read.” 

“Paine’s style was clear, forcible, and elegant: in our 
opinion, he is the best English writer we know ” 

“ In regard to Mr. Paine’s religion, as it was the reli¬ 
gion of most of the men of science of the present age, 
and probably of three-fourths of those of the last, there 
can be no just reason for making it an exception to his 
character.” 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


69 


“ On the. 8th of June, about nine in the morning, he 
died, placid and almost without a struggle.” 

“ As an act of kindness, Mr. Woodsworth visited Mr. 
Paine every day for six weeks before his death ; he fre¬ 
quently sat up with him, and did so on the last two nights 

of his life.Mr. Woodsworth assures us that he 

neither heard nor saw anything to justify the belief of 
any mental change in the opinions of Mr. Paine previous 
to his death.” 

“ In vain did his friends witness the sincerity of his 
belief, his firmness and calmness at the last moment; in 
vain did Dr. Manley try to extort from him a recantation ; 
and in vain did clerical gentlemen assail him when infirm 
in body. In vain did Mr. Jarvis, Colonel Daniel Pelton, 
and our living friend Mr. Haskins, and the respected 
Willet Hicks, receive his last declaration in the presence 
of death ; in vain was all this.” 

“After the French Revolution a reaction took place, 
first in England and then on this side the Atlantic, and 
in the darkness of which Clieetham slipped in his Life of 
Paine. 

“ Cheetham was an Englishman, and had been a zeal¬ 
ous disciple of Paine both in politics and religion ; but he 
had retrograded in politics, and deserted the principles of 
the democratic part}'. Paine had attacked him with his 
accustomed force, and thus converted him into a personal 
enemy. Mr. Cheetham at this time edited a party paper 
in New York, and, while he was yet smarting under the 
lash of Paine, heated by party politics and fired with 
revenge, .... wrote the life of his adversary. Cheet¬ 
ham, however, connected this with a scheme of interest: 



70 


THOMAS PAINE, 


.... he had become a renegade, and was then in sup¬ 
port of the English Tory party, and was preparing to go 
to England when he died. His Life of Paine he knew 
was a passport to the English court. 

44 When, therefore, a party hack, as Cheetham doubt¬ 
less was, disappointed and a renegade, with talents, as 
he certainly possessed, but embittered in feelings and 
regardless of truth, as all circumstances contribute to 
show,—what could be expected from such a man but 
just what he produced, a Life of Paine abounding in bold 
falsehoods, cunningly contrived, and addressed to a peo¬ 
ple who wished to be deceived ? ” 

4 4 Could the 4 Age of Reason 9 and 4 Rights of Man * 
have been replied to as he replied to Burke, we should 
have never heard these slanders.” 

44 Paine stands alone as a remarkable instance of great 
generosity and public spirit.” 

4 4 He possessed every prominent virtue in large propor¬ 
tions, and to these he added the most social qualities.” 

44 In reviewing the life of Thomas Paine, we can see no 
defect in his public character. He was a citizen of the 
world, and served its interests to the best of his abilities, 
which were great.” 

44 Mr. Paine was as much esteemed in his private life 
as in his public. He was a welcome visitor to the tables 
of the most distinguished citizens.” 

44 Other men have followed events ; Paine actually cre¬ 
ated them.” 

44 He wanted a Declaration of Independence, and he 
produced the wish for it.” 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


71 


“ The beauties of nature and the happiness of the 
human family occupied his mind ; and the violence done 
to nature and to human happiness by t} T ranny and super¬ 
stition, together with the remarkable events of his day, 
deflected his course from the pursuits of peace, which he 
was so fitted to enjoy, into the more violent but useful 
course he did pursue.” 

Rev. George Croly : — “ An impartial estimate of 
this remarkable person has been rarely formed, and still 
more rarely expressed. He was assuredly one of the 
original men of the age in which he lived.” 

George Jacob Holyoake : — “ There was nothing 
small or mean about him. He was a strong man all 
through. The man who was the confidant of Burke, the 
counsellor of Franklin, and the friend and colleague of 

Washington, must have had great qualities.Let 

us do justice to him.” 

Aaron Burr: — “I always considered Mr. Paine a 
gentleman, a pleasant companion, and a good-natured 
and intelligent man, decidedly temperate.” 

Judge Cooper: — “I have dined with Mr. Paine in 
literary societ} T , .... in London, at least a dozen times, 
when his dress, manners, and conversation were such as 
became the character of an unobtrusive, intelligent gentle¬ 
man, accustomed to good society.Paine’s opinions 

on theological topics underwent no change before his 
death.” 




72 


THOMAS PAINE, 


Col. Daniel Pelton : — “All you have heard of his 
recanting is false. Being aware that such reports would 
be raised after his death, by fanatics which infested his 
house at the time it was expected he would die, we 
[Thomas Nixon and Col. Pelton], intimate acquaintances 
of Thomas Paine since the year 1776 , went to his house. 
He was sitting up in a chair, and apparently in the full 
vigor and use of all his mental faculties. We interrogated 
him on his religious opinions, and if he had changed his 
mind, or repented of anything he had said or wrote, on 
that subject. He answered, 4 Not at all.’ ” 

Rev. Willet Hicks: — “I could have had an}^ sums 
if I would have said anything against Thomas Paine, or if 

I would even have consented to remain silent.He 

was a good man, an honest man.” 

John Fellows: — “Mr. Hicks was in the habit of 
seeing Mr. Paine frequently, and must have known if 
such a wonderful revolution had taken place in his mind 
as is stated; and he does not hesitate to say that the 
whole thing is a pious fraud. Indeed, it was considered 
by the friends of Paine generally to be too contemptible 
to controvert.” 

Walter Morton: — “In his religious opinions, he 
continued to the last as steadfast and tenacious as any 
sectarian to the definition of his own creed. I shook his 
hand after his use of speech was gone ; but, while the 
other organs told me sufficientl}’ that he knew me and 
appreciated my affection, his eye glistened with genius 
under the pangs of death.” 



THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 78 

Dr. Bond: — “Mr. Paine, while hourly expecting to 
die, read to me parts of his ‘ Age of Reason ’; and every 
night when I left him, to be separately locked up, and 
expected not to see him alive in the morning, he always 
expressed his firm belief in the principles of that book, 
and begged I would tell the world such were his dying 

opinions.He was the most conscientious man I 

ever knew.” 

Lord Edward Fitzgerald : — “I lodge with my friend 
Paine ; we breakfast, dine, and sup together. The more 
I see of his interior the more I like and respect him. I 
cannot express how kind he has been to me. There is a 
simplicity of manner, a goodness of heart, and a strength 
of mind in him that I never knew a man before to possess.” 

Clio Rickman: —“Why seek occasion, surly critics 
and detractors, to maltreat and misrepresent Mr. Paine ? 
He was mild, unoffending, sincere, gentle, humble, and 
unassuming; his talents were soaring, acute, profound, 
extensive, and original; and he possessed that charity 
which covers a multitude of sins.” 

Joel Barlow : — “He was one of the most benevolent 
and disinterested of mankind, endowed with the clearest 
perception, an uncommon share of original genius, and 
the greatest depth of thought.As a visiting ac¬ 

quaintance and a literary friend, he was one of the most 
instructive men I have ever known. He had a surprising 
memory and a brilliant fancy. His mind was a store¬ 
house of facts and useful observation. 

‘ 4 The biographer of Thomas Paine should not forget his 
mathematical acquirements nnd his mechanical genius. 




74 


THOMAS PAINE, 


His invention of the iron bridge, which led him to Europe 
in the year 1787, has procured him a great reputation in 
that branch of science in France and England. 

“ He ought to be ranked among the brightest and un¬ 
deviating luminaries of the age in which he lived/’ 

Henry C. Wright : — “ Thomas Paine had a clear idea 
of God. This Being embodied his highest conception of 
truth, love, wisdom, mercy, liberty, and power.” 

Maj. J. Weed Cory: — “Thomas Paine was not an 
atheist. He wrote against atheism, and in less than ten 
years Trinitarians will be appealing to his works to prove 
the existence of a God.” 

Rev. G. H. Humphrey : — “He was honest. Nor was 
he uncharitable. He abstained from profanity, and re¬ 
buked it in others. He opposed slavery.” 

Theodore Parker : — “ His instincts were humane and 
elevated, and his life devoted mainly to the great purposes 
of humanity. I think he did more to promote piet} 7 and 
morality among men than a hundred ministers of that 
age in America.” 

Benjamin Franklin: — “ He is an ingenious, honest 
man.” 

Hon. Henry S. Randall: — “But concede all the 
allegations against him, and it still leaves him the author 
of 4 Common Sense,’ and certain other papers, which rung 
like clarions in the darkest hour of the Revolutionary 




THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 75 

struggle, inspiring the bleeding and starving and pesti¬ 
lence-stricken as the pen of no other man ever inspired 

. Shame rest on the pen which dares not to 

do him justice ! ” 

R. Shelton Mackenzie, D.C.L.: — “We cannot ig¬ 
nore the fact that he was one of the ablest politicians of 
his time, and that liberal minds all over the world recog¬ 
nized him as such.” 

Charles Botta : — “No writer, perhaps, ever pos¬ 
sessed in a higher degree the art of moving and guiding 
the multitude at his will.” 

Stephen Simpson : — “Lucid in his style, forcible in 
his diction, and happy in his illustrations, he threw the 
charms of poetry over the statue of reason, and made 
converts to liberty as if a power of fascination presided 
over his pen. 

“ To the genius of Thomas Paine as a popular writer, 
and to that of George Washington as a prudent, skilful, 
and consummate general, are the American people in¬ 
debted for their rights, liberty, and independence.” 

Paul Allen : — “ Among the numerous writers on this 
momentous question, the most luminous, the most eloquent, 
and the most forcible was Thomas Paine. .... Those 
who regard the independence of the United States as a 
blessing will never cease to cherish the remembrance of 
Thomas Paine.” 

Thomas Gaspey : — “ The clear and powerful style of 
Paine made a prodigious impression on the American 



76 


THOMAS PAINE, 


people.He was treated with great consideration 

by the members of the Revolutionary Government, who 
took no steps of importance without consulting him.” 

William Howitt : — “ He became the great oracle on 
subjects of governments and constitutions. 

‘ ‘ There was no man in the Colonies who contributed so 
much to bring the open Declaration of Independence to a 
crisis as Thomas Paine. 

“This pamphlet [‘Common Sense’] was the spark 
which was all that was needed to fire the train of Inde¬ 
pendence. It at once seized on the imagination of the 
public, cast all other writers into the shade, and flew in 
thousands and tens of thousands all over the Colonies. 
. . . . The common fire blazed up in the Congress, and 
the thing was done.” 

Samuel Bryan: — “This book, ‘Common Sense,’ may 
be called the Book of Genesis, for it was the beginning. 
From this book spread the Declaration of Independence, 
that not only laid the foundation of libert}’ in our own 
country, but the good of mankind throughout the world.” 

Benj. F. Lossing : — “It was the earliest and most 
powerful appeal in behalf of Independence, and prob¬ 
ably did more to fix that idea firmly in the public mind 
than any other instrumentality.” 

Rev. William Gordon : — “ Nothing could have been 
better timed than this performance.” 

William Massey : — “ Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, 
‘Common Sense,’ .... had an immense circulation.” 





THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 77 

Timothy Pitkins :— “‘Common Sense’ produced a 
wonderful effect in the different Colonies in favor of In¬ 
dependence.” 

GuillauxMe Tell Poussin: — “‘Common Sense’ ex¬ 
erted an overpowering influence. It rendered the senti¬ 
ment of Independence national.” 

Rev. Ariel Holmes: — “A pamphlet under the sig¬ 
nature of ‘ Common Sense,’ written by Thomas Paine, 
produced great effect.” 

Richard Frothingham : — “ The great question which 
it treated was now discussed at every fireside; and the 
favorite toast at every dinner-table w'as, ‘ May the inde¬ 
pendent principles of “Common Sense” be confirmed 
throughout the United Colonies!/” 

Francis Bowen : — “ Written in an eminently popular 
style, it had an immense circulation, and was of great 
service in preparing the minds of the people for Inde¬ 
pendence.” 

John Frost, LL.D. : — “One of the most conspicu¬ 
ous of these writers was Thomas Paine.” 

William Smythe : — “ The pamphlet of Paine was uni¬ 
versally read and admired in America.” 

Dr. David Ramsey : — “In union with the feelings and 
sentiments of the people, it produced surprising effects.” 

Richard Hildreth: — “It argued in that plain and 
convincing style for which Paine was so distinguished. 


78 


THOMAS PAINE, 


Pitched exactly to the popular tone, it had a wide circu¬ 
lation throughout the Colonies, and gave a powerful im¬ 
pulse to the cause of Independence.” 

W. H. Bartlett : — “ This pamphlet .... produced 
an indescribable sensation.” 

William Grimshaw : — “The most powerful writer 
was the celebrated Thomas Paine, of London, who re¬ 
sided for some time in America, and, in a work entitled 
‘ Common Sense,’ roused the public feeling to a degree 
unequalled b}' any previous appeal.” 

Henry G. Watson: — “‘Common Sense’ effected a 
complete revolution in the feelings and sentiments of the 
great mass of the people.” 

Mary Howitt : — “ It went direct to the point, show¬ 
ing, in the simplest but strongest language, the lolly of 
keeping up the British connection, and the absolute 
necessit} r which existed for separation. The cause of 
Independence took, as it were, a definite form from this 
moment.” 

Mary L. Booth : — “At this juncture ‘ Common Sense’ 
was published in Philadelphia, by Thomas Paine, and 
electrified the whole nation with the spirit of Independ¬ 
ence and Liberty. This eloquent production severed 
the last link that bound the Colonies to the mother coun¬ 
ty ; it boldly gave speech to the arguments which had 
long been trembling on the lips of many, but which none 
before had found courage to utter.” 

Edmund Burke : — “ k Common Sense,’ that celebrated 
pamphlet which prepared the minds of the people for 
Independence.” 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


79 


General Charles Lee: — “Have you seen the pam¬ 
phlet, ‘Common Sense’? I never saw such a masterly, 
irresistible performance. 

“ He burst forth on the world like Jove in thunder!” 

Rev. Jedediah Morse: — “The change of the public 
mind on this occasion is without a parallel.” 

Hon. Salma Hale : — “ The effect of the pamphlet in 
making converts was astonishing, and is probably without 
precedent in the annals of literature.” 

Dr. Benjamin Rush : — “ ‘Common Sense’ burst from 
the press with an effect which has rarely been produced 
by types and paper in any age or country.” 

Alexander Andrews : — “ The ‘ American Crisis ’ ap¬ 
peared, and first pronounced the words which had been 
faltering upon so many blanched lips and trembling 
tongues of men who shuddered as they saw the only 
alternative more plainly, — Independence and Separa¬ 
tion.” 

George F. Cram : — “He wrote the ‘ Crisis,’ and the 
whole patriot arm}" was inspirited by it. Other patriotic 
articles followed, and during the war his pen was consid¬ 
ered as mighty in leading on the armies as their cannon 
was formidable to the British hosts.” 

Samuel Adams : — “I have frequently, with pleasure, 
reflected on your services to m 3 " native and }-our adopted 
country. Your 4 Common Sense ’ and your 4 Crisis ’ un- 


80 


THOMAS PAINE, 


questionably awakened the public mind, and led the 
people loudly to call for a Declaration of our National 
Independence.” 

Abbe Sieyes : — “Thomas Paine is one of those men 
who most contributed to the establishment of a Republic 
in America. In England his ardent love of humanity, 
and his hatred of every form of tyranny, prompted him 
to defend the French Revolution against the rhapsodical 
declamation of Mr. Burke. His ‘ Rights of Man,’ trans¬ 
lated into our language, is universally known ; and where 
is the patriotic Frenchman who has not already, from the 
depths of his soul, thanked him for having fortified our 
cause with all the power of his reason and his reputa¬ 
tion?” 


Charles James Fox : —“ 4 The Rights of Man ’ seems 
as clear and as simple as the first rules of arithmetic.” 

Dr. Baines : —“ Editions were multiplied in every form 
and size : it was alike seen in the hands of the noble and 
the plebeian, and became, at length, translated into the 
various languages of Europe.” 

Richard Henry Lee : — “ It is a performance of which 
any man might be proud ; and I sincerely regret that our 
country could not have offered sufficient inducements to 
have retained as a permanent citizen a man so thoroughly 
republican in sentiment, and fearless in the expression of 
his opinions.” 

Dr. T. A. Bland: — “Thomas Paine .... has fur¬ 
nished the substratum of the best theological thought of 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


81 


modern times. The principles of the ‘Age of Reason’ 
are embodied in sermons — Orthodox and Radical — all 
over the country.” 

Alice Huntley Payne: — “The sound logical argu¬ 
ments of the work, and the purity of tone and expres¬ 
sion, all carried conviction to her judgment and under¬ 
standing.” 

James Parton : — “The ‘Age of Reason’ contains 
nothing against religion.” 

Prof. Jamieson: — “I read from this famous book, 
the ‘ Age of Reason,’ .... as pure sentiments as w r ere 
ever penned by mortal man.” 

Dr. John W. Francis: — “No work had the demand 
for readers comparable to that of Paine.” 

B. F. Underwood: — “Thomas Paine’s style as a 
writer, in some respects, has never been equalled ; at 

least, has never been surpassed.Every sentence that 

he wrote was suffused with the light of his own luminous 
mind, and stamped with his own intense individuality of 

character.He presented his thoughts in language 

so terse and clear and simple that even the most unedu¬ 
cated mind could not fail to understand them, while the 
most learned, even to-day, cannot read them without 
profit or without interest.” 

Horne Tooke : — “You are like Jove, coming down 
upon us in a shower of gold.” 




82 


THOMAS PAINE, 


Capel Lofft : — “lam glad Paine is living : he cannot 
be even wrong without enlightening mankind, such is the 
vigor of his intellect, such the acuteness of his research, 
and such the force and vivid perspicuity of his expres¬ 
sion.” 

Rev. W. C. Gannett : — “ What wonder that Thomas 
Paine wrote his strong, rank sarcasm? People should 
remember why he wrote it.” 

Robert Bisset, LL.D.: — “ Thomas Paine was repre¬ 
sented as the minister of God, diffusing light to a dark¬ 
ened world.” 

Stephen Pearl Andrews: — “The true chief-priest 
of humanity is the man who solves the greatest riddles 
and conquers the greatest obstacles in the progress of 
mankind; and you must not be surprised if I rank 
Thomas Paine not onty, therefore, as a priest, but as 
perhaps the real chief-priest, or pontifex maximus, of his 
age.” 

Louis Masquerier : — 

“ Paine, who wrote, in man’s defense, 

‘ Rights of Man ’ and ‘ Common Sense,’ — 

Let not pious virulence 
Stain his honest fame.” 

Sir Francis Burdett : — “Ministers know that a 
united people are not to be resisted ; and it is this that 
we must understand b} r what is written in the works of 
an honest man too long calumniated. I mean Thomas 
Paine.” 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


83 


James Thompson Callender: — “Abuse of this author 
is now as naturally expected in a Federal newspaper as 
tea and chocolate in a grocer’s store. .... They dread 
and revile, and if able they would persecute, Thomas 
Paine, because he possesses talents and courage suffi¬ 
cient to rend asunder the mantle of speculation, and to 
delineate the rickety growth of our public debt.” 

Charles Wilson Peale :—“Personal acquaintance 
with him gives me an opportunity of knowing that he had 
done more for our common cause than the world, who had 
only seen his publications, could know.” 

Madame de Stael : — “ When the sentence of Louis 
XVI. came under discussion, he alone advised what 
would have done honor to France if it had been adopted, 
— the offer to the king of an asylum in America.” 

Marquis de Chastelleux : — “I know not how it 
happened that, since my arrival in America, I had not yet 
seen Mr. Paine, that author so celebrated in America and 
throughout Europe by his excellent work entitled 4 Com¬ 
mon Sense/ and several other political pamphlets. M. 
De Lafayette and myself had asked the permission of an 
interview for the 14th, in the morning, and we waited on 

him accordingly with Col. Laurens.His patriotism 

and his talents are unquestionable.” 

W. T. Sherwin : — “The hall of the Minimes was so 
crowded that it was with the greatest difficulty they made 
way for Mr. Paine to the side of the president. Over the 
chair he sat in was placed the bust of Mirabeau, and 
the colors of France, England, and America united. A 




84 


THOMAS PAINE, 


speaker acquainted him from the tribune with his election, 
amid the plaudits of the people. For some minutes after 
this ceremony, nothing was heard but 4 Vive la Nation! 
Vive Thomas Paine ! ’ 

“Despair and dismay appear to have formed no part 
of Paine’s character. He seems never to have sunk 
into the extreme of depression, or to have risen to that 
tumultuous gladness which so often accompanies the ex¬ 
treme of elevation. His mind appears never to have been 
crushed by defeat or elated by success. The unshaken 
fortitude which can smile on disappointments and danger, 
and look serenely amidst the tumult of triumph, seems to 
have been the most prominent feature in his character. ” 

David Bruce : — 44 In the year 1830 the writer visited 
Philadelphia in company with an old printer, Mr. Samuel 
Farilamb. He paused in a quiet court and pointed out 
the still standing printing-office wherein he served his 
apprenticeship. 4 There,’ he solemnly remarked, 4 1 once 
saw in deep debate, standing alone, three of the greatest 
men together perhaps the world ever saw ; and as time 
has moved along, with its strange and startling events, 
developing principles which exercised their great and ex¬ 
tended minds, the cluster of that trinity of master-spirits 
has often occurred to my mind.’ 

4 4 He no doubt read my impatient inquiry in my stare 
and profound silence. 

44 He resumed: 4 Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, 
and Dr. Joseph Priestley.’ ” 

Harriet Law : — 44 There are few to whom the world 
owes more, and probably none to whose memory it has 
been more ungrateful.” 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


85 


Arthur O’Conner : — 

“ The pomp of courts and pride of kings 
1 fain would banish far from hence: 

I prize beyond all earthly things 
The Rights of Man and Common Sense. 

“ I love my country, but the king,— 

Confusion to his odious reign! 

Above all men, his praise I sing, 

That foe to princes, Thomas Paine.’* 

Elmina Drake Slenker : — “ And this mild work, the 
‘ Age of Reason,’ is ... . the real cause and origin of 
all the cruel calumnies the world has circulated about the 
scholar, the philosopher, the hero, the scientist, the in¬ 
ventor, the humanitarian, and the savior, Thomas Paine. 

‘ ‘ He came to this country to introduce a more elevated 
system of education in our female schools ; and therefore 
you women .... should be especially careful how } T ou 
malign and traduce one who labored for your elevation in 
the scale of humanity ; one who wished to give 3 ’ou the 
only means that will ever raise you to an equality with 
your brother man,—knowledge.” 

Charles Bradlaugh : — “ Thomas Paine’s name stands 
so high that an} r word of mine as testimony to his memory 
seems an impertinence. He was a sturdj', true man, 
though Norfolk-born not English, but human, and with 
nothing of geographical limit to that humanit}'. As a 
politician, or rather as a thinker on politics, he stands for 
England as Jean Jaques Rousseau has stood for France. 
You on y our side ought to reverence him for his timely 
words in the great crisis which gave form and reality to 
vague, unspoken thought. We on our side, too, ought 
to honor him for the ‘ Rights of Man ’ yet to be weari- 
somelj' achieved.’' 


86 


THOMAS PAINE, 


Rev. Francis L. Hawkes, LL.D. :— “Paine arrived 
in Calais in Septemper, 1792. The garrison at Calais 
were under arms to receive this ‘ friend of liberty,’ the 
tri-colored cockade was presented to him by the mayor, 
and the handsomest woman in the town was selected to 
place it in his hat. Meantime Paine had been declared 
in Paris worthy the honors of citizenship, and he pro¬ 
ceeded thither, where he was received with every demon¬ 
stration of extravagant joy.” 

Calvin Blanchard : — “ The 4 Crisis ’ is contained in 
sixteen numbers, to notice which separately would involve 
a history of the American Revolution itself. In fact, 
they comprise a truer history of that event than does any 
professed history of it yet written. They comprise the 
soul of it, of which every professed history is destitute. 

“ He stood the acknowledged leader of American 
statesmanship, and the soul of the American Revolution, 
by the proclamation of the Legislatures of all the States, 

and that of the Congress of the United States.A 

little less modesty, a little more preference of himself to 
humanity, and a good deal more of what ought to be 
common sense on the part of the people he sought to free, 
and he would have been President of the United States ; 
and America, instead of France, would have had the 
merit of bestowing the highest honor on the most de¬ 
serving of mankind.” 


Col. William H. Burr: — “There are more than 
three hundred parallels of character, conduct, opinion, 
style, sentiment, and language between Paine and Junius. 
.... Paine alone, of the forty or more writers on whose 



THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


8T 


behalf the authorship of those letters has been claimed, 
answers to all the characteristics, and redeems all the 
pledges, of Junius. 

u It is conceded that Philip Francis, as a writer, never 
rose to the level of Junius. None but a rash critic will 
assign Paine to a lower level. 

“The claim of the identity of Paine with Junius is 
now six years old; and, if there is a single fact incom¬ 
patible therewith, it is time it were produced.” 


Hon. Elizur Wright: — “In my early life I looked 
at Thomas Paine through the green spectacles of the 
Orthodox popular religion. While I did so, the Revolu¬ 
tion of ’76 seemed supernatural, and our Republicanism 
mysterious. As years rolled on, I met a worthy Quaker 
Abolitionist of New Rochelle, who gave me some tradi¬ 
tional information of Paine’s private character so flatly 
contradictory to the common Christian estimate, that I 
was excited to study his writings and public career as I 
had never done before. I was surprised to find there the 
natural cause of what before had been so mysterious to 
me. It became perfectly clear that it was Thomas Paine, 
more than any other man or any other thing, who turned 
the current of history in the New World. It was his 
clear head and brave and righteous soul that inspired the 
men who declared our independence, and put into the 
Constitution of the United States such a veto against 
ecclesiastical domination as has defied its proud and 
conceited usurpation to the present day.” 

Richard Carlisle : — “I revere the name of Thomas 
Paine. The image of his honest face is ever before me.” 


88 


THOMAS PAINE, 


George Bancroft : — “ The publication of 4 Common 
Sense,’ which was brought out on the 8th of January, was 
most opportune.” 

M. Danton : — “ What thou hast done for the happi¬ 
ness and liberty of thy country, 1 have in vain attempted 
to do for mine. I have been less fortunate, but not more 
guilty. They are sending us to the scaffold. Well, my 
friend, we must go to it gaily.” 

Josiah P. Mendum : — “ Thomas Paine was one of the 
most devoted patriots this country had at the time of its 
long struggle with Great Britain for its independence. 
As a reasoner and writer, few compared with him; as a 
friend, one to be relied upon for aid and assistance within 
his power to give. His political writings are radical and 
reformatory, even in advance of the present time. Asa 
critic ^nd reviewer of the Bible, his 4 Age of Reason’ is 
unanswerable, while his ideas of God are very sublime. 
His great services in the American Revolution, and the 
part he acted during the struggle of the Colonies for their 
independence, entitle him to the respect and admiration 
of every lover of the country of his adoption.” 

George Lippard : — u Ah, my friends ! }'ou may talk 
to me of the sublimity of your battles, whose poetry is 
bones and skulls, whose glories are like the trophies of 
the butcher’s shambles; but for me there is no battle so 
awfully sublime as one like this, now being fought before 
your ej'es. 

“ A poor, neglected author, sitting in his garret, —the 
world, poverty, time, space, all forgotten, — as, with his 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


89 


soul kindled into one steady blaze, he plies that fast- 
moving quill. That quill writes down words on paper 
which shall burn into the brains of kings, — words like 
arrows winged with fire and pointed with vitriol! 

“ In the full prime of early manhood, he joins the 
army of the Revolution; he shares the crust and the cold 
with Washington and his men ; he is with those brave 
soldiers on the toilsome march, wdth them b}' the camp¬ 
fire, with them in the hour of battle ! 

‘ 4 Is the day dark ? has the battle been bloody ? do 
the American soldiers despair ? Hark! that printing- 
press yonder, which moves with the American camp in 
all its wanderings, is scattering pamphlets through the 
ranks of the army, — pamphlets written by the author- 
soldier ; written sometimes on the head of a drum, or 
by the midnight fire, or amid the corses of the dead. 

“ Tell me, was not that a sublime sight, to see a man 
of genius, who might have shone as an orator, a poet, a 
novelist, following, with untiring devotion, the blood}'- 
stamped footsteps of the Continental Army?” 

“ Such words as these stirred up the starved Conti¬ 
nentals to the attack on Trenton, and there, in the dawn 
of that glorious morning, George Washington, standing 
sword in hand over the dead body of the Hessian Rhol, 
confessed the magic influence of the author-hero’s pen.” 

Hon. George W. Julian: — “ I read Paine’s political 
writings when a boy, and have admired him ever since. 
He was a perfectly unselfish and incorruptible patriot; 
he was a philanthropist in the best sense of the word ; he 
was a man of the rarest integrity and moral courage. 
If any man, native or foreign born, among the illustrious 


90 


THOMAS PAINE, 


characters of ‘ the times that tried men’s souls,’ is to be 
singled out as the real Father of American Democracy, 
it is Thomas Paine. He has been the victim of almost 
infinite injustice ; but I rejoice in the confident belief that 
time will fully vindicate his memory, and restore him to 
his just rank among the heroes of humanity.” 

Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson : — “Thomas 
Paine, in the finest words that ever came from his lips, 
when he was urged by his friends to leave France during 
the French Revolution, gave us something that might be 
always the motto for us. They urged him (he was in 
personal danger) to go back to America, the country he 
had served so long. ‘ Go there,’ they said : ‘ it is your 
country.’ ‘No,’ he said ; ‘ for the time, this is my coun¬ 
try.’ Then they quoted to him the old Latin motto that 
he himself had once quoted, — k Where liberty is, there is 
my country.’ What grander motto can there be? But 
Paine, with the doors of the Bastile opening before him, 
thought of one still grander. ‘ No,’ he said; ‘ no, it is 
not my motto,—not “Where liberty is, there is my 
country,” but “Where liberty is not, there is m3” coun¬ 
try.” ’ So said Thomas Paine, and the doors of the 
Bastile closed around him.” 

John Frazer: — “Will you please to inform our 
friends that the monument to Thomas Paine is erected ? 
. . . , The people up there say it is a chaste and 
beautiful structure. Its purely Grecian character and 
simplicity of form render its general effect truly impres¬ 
sive and interesting. 

“ I was much pleased to find that, among the number 
of fifty persons and more that were assembled to witness 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


91 


onr labors, not an unkind look was seen, nor an un¬ 
friendly expression heard, during the time. All looked 
and spake as though their hearts were glad at seeing such 
marked regard, such noble and lasting honor, paid to 
the great patriot of our Revolution and the defender of 
the rights of man.” 

W. S. Bell: — “He attempted to incorporate in the 
new Constitution the principle of universal suffrage, but 
found only one supporter. When the National Conven¬ 
tion met to order the execution of Louis XVI., it was 
Paine who rose, and in the name of liberty protested 
against the deed, which was both crime and blunder. 

“‘Destroy the king,’ he cried, ‘but save the man! 
Strike the crown, but spare the heart! ’ 

“ ‘ These are not the words of Thomas Paine ! ’ ex¬ 
claimed a dozen members, from different parts of the 
hall. 

“ ‘ The} 7 are my words ! ’ said the brave Englishman.” 

Hon. W. H. Herndon: — “About the year 1834, 
Lincoln chanced to come across Volney’s ‘ Ruins,’ and 
some of Paine’s theological works. He at once seized 
hold of them, and assimilated them into his own being. 
Yolney and Paine became a part of Mr. Lincoln from 
1834 to the end of his life.” 

H. L. Green: — “The world moves! There was a 
soldiers’ re-union at Vincennes a few days ago, and the 
banner over the speaker’s stand was adorned with finely 
executed portraits of Thomas Paine, George Washington, 
and Abraham Lincoln; and above the portraits were 


92 


THOMAS PAINE, 


the words, 4 The Glorious Trinity of Independence,’ and 
beneath the portraits the words, 4 The Originator, the 
Defender, the Preserver.’ ” 

Rev. S. P. Putnam: — “For once, the man of ideas 
ranked with the man of action; and he, whose brain 
and intense soul gave meaning to the mighty Revolution 
of our fathers, was held in equal respect with him who 
made that meaning effectual in blows and practical states¬ 
manship. We would detract nothing from the fame of 
Washington: his glory abides, and the glory of another 
does not make it less.” 

44 Washington drew his sword as a rebel. It was the 
pen of Thomas Paine that made him the builder of a new 
nation; it was the burning words of the 4 Infidel ’ that 
gave to the armies of America the grandest faith that 
ever moved a struggling and oft-times despairing host.” 

Dr. J. R. Monroe: — 4 4 The American people are 
slowly progressing toward a proper appreciation of the 
great merits and genius of Thomas Paine. The services 
he rendered to the cause of liberty in his day are in¬ 
calculable. In genius he was the master-spirit of his 
time ; in action he was unselfish ; in council he was wise ; 
in power he was merciful; in charity, unstinted. He was 
a century ahead of the age in which he lived. With the 
wand of his genius he turned aside the scroll that con¬ 
cealed the future of our countr}', and, by the inspiring 
picture he thus presented, our disheartened and hard- 
pressed forefathers were nerved to press forward, to brave 
every peril, to dare every danger, to defy every death, till 
tyranny was throttled and man was free. Not so much 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


93 


in his theological literature ■— caustic, conclusive, and un¬ 
answerable as it is — should Thomas Paine live, as in his 
earnest and unrewarded labors in the cause of human 
rights and mental liberty.” 

Parker Pillsbury : — 44 This generation will never ap¬ 
preciate, still less approve, the services rendered to the 
cause of American Independence by Thomas Paine. 
Paine was more needed in 1775 than was Jefferson or 
Washington. Without his 4 Common Sense,’ written in 
that year, we should not have had the Declaration of In¬ 
dependence in 1776; and, till that Declaration, there 
was little of the presence of Washington, and perhaps 
still less of his military services, needed. 

“ Some wise men believe Thomas Paine the author of 
the Declaration of Independence. That probably cannot 
be proved. But whoever has read his ‘ Common Sense’ 
and 4 Crisis ’ will not doubt that he could have written 
every word of it. And whoever reads his 4 Rights of 
Man ’ can as easily believe that he might have written the 
4 Constitution of the United States ’ also; all but its 
Slavery Compromises, to which he would never have set 
his hand, — never ! ” 

Col. John C. Bundy: — 44 I hail with pleasure every 
announcement of a new work on that great hero, Thomas 
Paine, the man whose splendid genius has done so much 
to advance political and religious liberty. I am glad to 
note from year to year an increasing demand for his 
writings, and a broader and more just appreciation of his 
great services.” 

Thomas Carlyle : — 4 4 To the Convention itself* neither 
the work nor the method is doubtful, — to make the Con- 


94 


THOMAS PAINE, 


stitution; to defend the Republic till that be made. 
Speedily enough, accordingly, there has been a Com¬ 
mittee of the Constitution got together. Sieyes, old 
constituent, Constitution-builder by trade; Condorcet, 
fit for better things ; Deputy Paine, foreign Benefactor of 
the Species, with the black beaming eyes; Herault de 
Sechelles, Ex-Parlementier, one of the handsomest men 
in France, — these, with inferior guild-brethren, are. girt 
cheerfully to the work.” 

Hon. John James Ingalls: — 14 I have an idea tbgt 
Paine was one of the great apostles of human liberty, 
and that he did much to emancipate mankind from the 
shackles of ancient prejudice and error.” 

Francis E. Abbot : — 44 Thomas Paine was one of the 
noblest and most unselfish of men, and one to whom 
America owes an eternal debt of gratitude. His services 
in the cause of our national liberty and independence were 
incalculable ; and his services to. religious liberty were no 
less. His 4 Age of Reason ’ was one of the greatest 
historic blows ever struck for freedom. Paine’s name 
ought to be written in letters of gold in the roll of the 
world’s heroes.” 

William Cobbett : — 44 I saw Paine first pointing the 
way, and then leading a nation through difficulties of all 
sorts to independence, and to lasting liberty, prosperity, 
and greatness. 

44 In principles of finance, Mr. Paine was deeply 
skilled ; and to his very great and rare talents as a writer 
he added an uncommon degree of experience in the con¬ 
cerns of paper money. 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


95 


4 4 Old Age having laid his hand upon this truly great 
man, this truly philosophical politician, at his expiring 
flambeau I lighted my taper.” 


Thomas Campbell : — “I may be reminded there was 
such a man as Thomas Paine, and that he strongly an¬ 
swered at the bar of public opinion all the arguments of 
Burke. I do not deny that fact; and I should be sorry if 
I could be blind, even with tears in my eyes for Mack¬ 
intosh, to the services that have been rendered to the 
cause of truth by the shrewdness and courage of Thomas 
Paine.” 

Lord Erskine : — 4 4 In that great and calamitous con¬ 
flict, Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine fought in the same 
field together, but with very different success. Mr. Burke 
spoke to a Parliament in England, such as Sir George 
Saville describes it, having no ears but for sounds that 
flattered its corruptions. Mr. Paine, on the other hand, 
spoke to the people, reasoned with them, told them they 
were bound by no subjection to any sovereignty further 
than their own benefit connected them; and, by these 
powerful arguments, prepared the minds of the American 
people for that glorious, just, and happy Revolution.” 

Madame Roland : — 44 Among the persons I was in 
the habit of receiving, .... Paine deserves to be men¬ 
tioned. Declared a French citizen, as one of those cele¬ 
brated foreigners whom the nation ought with eagerness 
to adopt, he was known by writings which had been use¬ 
ful in the American Revolution, and might have contrib¬ 
uted to produce one in England.” 


96 


THOMAS PAINE, 


“The boldness of his conceptions, the originality of 
his style, the striking truths which he boldly throws out 
in the midst of those whom they offend, must necessarily 
have produced great effects.” 

George Washington : — “ One who entertains a lively 
sense of the importance of your works.” 

14 B}’ private letters which I have latety received from 
Virginia, I find that 4 Common Sense ’ is working a 
powerful change there in the minds of many men.” 

44 That his 4 Common Sense’ and many of his 4 Crisis’ 
were well-timed, and had a happy effect on the public 
mind, none, I believe, who will turn to the epocha at which 
they were published, will deny.” 

John Adams : — 44 It has been very generally propaga¬ 
ted throughout the continent that I wrote the pamphlet, 

4 Common Sense.’ I could not have written in so manly 
and striking a style.” 

“His sentiments of the abilities of America, and of the 
difficulty of a reconciliation with Great Britain, are gen¬ 
erally approved.” 

44 Washington’s sword would have been wielded in vain 
had it not been supported by the pen of Paine.” 

Thomas Jefferson : — 44 You ask my opinion of Lord 
Bolingbroke and Thomas Paine. They were alike in 
making bitter enemies of the priests and pharisees of 
their day. Both were honest men; both advocates for 
human liberty. .... These two persons differed re¬ 
markably in the style of their writings, each leaving a 



THE APOSTLE OP LIBERTY. 


97 


model of what is most perfect in both extremes of the 
simple and the sublime. No writer has exceeded Paine 
in ease and familiarity of style, in perspicuity of expres¬ 
sion, happiness of elucidation, and in simple and un¬ 
assuming language.” 

4 4 1 am in hopes you will find us returned generally to - 
sentiments worthy of former times. In these it will be 
your glory to have steadily labored, and with as much 
effect as an}' man living.” 

James Madison : — 44 Whether a greater disposition to 
reward patriotic and distinguished exertions of genius 
will be found on any succeeding occasion, is not for me 
to predetermine. Should it finally appear that the merits 
of the man, whose writings have so much contributed to 
infuse and foster the spirit of independence in the people 
of America, are unable to inspire them with a just benefi¬ 
cence, the world, it is to be feared, will give us as little 
credit for our policy as for our gratitude in this par¬ 
ticular.” 

James Monroe : — 44 It is not necessary for me to tell 
you how much all your countrymen — 1 speak of the 
great mass of the people — are interested in your welfare. 
They have not forgotten the history of their own Revolu¬ 
tion, and the difficult scenes through which they had 
passed ; nor do they review its several stages without re< 
viving in their bosoms a due sensibility of the merits ol 
those who served them in that great and arduous conflict. 
The crime of ingratitude has not yet stained, and I hope 
never will stain, our national character. You are con¬ 
sidered by them as not only having rendered* important 


98 


THOMAS PAINE, 


services in our Revolution, but as being, on a more ex¬ 
tensive scale, the friend of human rights, and a distin¬ 
guished and able advocate in favor of public liberty. To 
the welfare of Thomas Paine the Americans are not, nor 
can they be, indifferent.” 

Dn. Ladd : — 

“ Long live the man, in early contest found, 

Who spoke his heart when dastards trembled round; 

Who, fired with more than Greek or Roman rage, 

Flashed truth on tyrants from his manly page! 

Immortal Paine! whose pen surprised we saw 
Could fashion empires while it kindled awe.” 

Gen. William A. Stokes : — “When 4 Common Sense* 
was published a great blow was struck : it was felt from 
New England to the Carolinas; it resounded throughout 
the world.” 

44 Paine’s brawny arm applied the torch which set the 
country in a flame, to be extinguished only by the relin¬ 
quishment of British supremacy; and for this, irrespec¬ 
tive of his motives and character, he merits the gratitude 
of every American.” 

Rev. Moncure D. Conway: — 44 Thomas Paine was a 
devout believer in God and immortalit} 7 , and died with 
the expression of that faith on his lips.” 

4 4 All efforts to stain the good name of Thomas Paine 
have recoiled on those who made them, like poisoned 
arrows shot against a strong wind. In his life, in his 
justice, in his truth, in his adherence to high principles, 
in his disinterestedness, I look in vain for a parallel in 
those times and in these times. I am selecting my words. 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


99 


I know I am to be held accountable for them. So dis¬ 
interested was he, that, when his works were printed by 
the ten thousand, and as fast as one edition was out an¬ 
other was demanded, he, a poor and pinched author, who 
might very easily have grown rich, would not accept one 
cent for them, declared that he would not coin his prin¬ 
ciples, and made to the States a present of the copy¬ 
rights. His brain was his fortune, — nay, his living ; he 
gave it all to American Independence.” 

Judge Herttell : — “No man in modern ages has 
done more to benefit mankind, or distinguished himself 
more for the immense moral good he has effected for his 
species, than Thomas Paine, who in truth merits eternal 
life, and doubtless will be immortalized in the memor}” 
and gratitude of future generations of happy beings, who 
will continue to hymn his praises and make his merits 
known to the remotest posterity.” 

Prof. Rawson : — “ Paine felt and acted on the prin¬ 
ciple of the ancient Greeks, whose rule was reason and 
taste, in brilliant contrast to those who act merely from 
intuition. His portrait here before us indicates a man 
of great power of observation and strong natural instincts. 
These were used in the best interests of humanity, and I 
have often wondered why his name has been so bitterly 
attacked.” 

“More men like Paine are wanted, and will appear 
from time to time, until the whole human race have grown 
in intelligence, reason, and taste, —until despotism will be 
no longer possible anywhere, but the true spirit of Christ 


100 


THOMAS PAINE, 


will fill every man’s head and heart, and bind all men 
into one brotherhood.” 

Rev. Solomon Southwick : — k ‘No page in history, 
stained as it is with treachery and falsehood, or cold¬ 
blooded indifference to right or wrong, exhibits a more 
disgraceful instance of public ingratitude than that which 
Thomas Paine experienced from an age and country 
which he had so faithfully served.” 

44 Did not those who feared his talents make his relig¬ 
ion a pretext not only to treat him with cold neglect, but 
to strip him, if possible, of every laurel he had won in the 
political field as the brilliant, undaunted, and successful 
advocate of freedom?” 

44 Had Thomas Paine been a Grecian or Roman patriot 
in olden times, and performed the same services as he did 
for this country, he would have had the honor of an 
Apotheosis. The Pantheon would have been opened to 
him, and we should at this day regard his memory with 
the same veneration that we do that of Socrates and 
Cicero. But posterity will do him justice. Time, that 
destroys envy and establishes truth, will clothe his char¬ 
acter in the habiliments that justly belong to it.” 

Prof. M. N. Wright: — 44 It is said Thomas Paine 
was an Infidel. Infidel to what? Infidel to justice? to 
truth? to human rights? In all these he was a most 
devout believer. Infidel to the right of king and priest, 
by 4 divine right,’ to crush out the reason and conscience, 
and trample upon the liberties, of their fellow-men, he 
certainly was; but in devotion to his highest convictions 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


101 


of truth, justice, and duty,— in faith in the triumph of 
liberty over tyranny, of truth over error, —he will alwa}^ 
stand as an illustrious example of that higher reverence, 
that diviner faith of the incoming religion, — a religion 
based in the common wants of a common humanity.” 

Hugh Byron Brown: — “I am no hero-worshipper. 
My motto has ever been, 4 Principles, not men.’ Still 
there are a few great men who, like mile-stones along the 
road of progress, are so distinguished and prominent, and 
who have so influenced the destinies of nations, as to 

mark an epoch in the world’s history.Such a 

man was Thomas Paine.” 

“ Like the stormy petrel, Paine was ever to be found 
in the storms of revolution.” 

u His free lance was ever at the service of the poor 
and oppressed, but never to be bought by favors of the 
court, or awed by the menaces of kings or the anathemas 
of priests.” 

Horace Seaver : ■—“To us, Thomas Paine appears 
as one of the master-minds of the earth; and his writ¬ 
ings are a noble monument to the loftiness of his aims, 
the brilliancy of his genius, the wealth of benevolence in 
his heart, and the breadth and power of his intellect.” 

George Legg Henderson : •— “ The time is not far 
distant when all the world shall recognize in Thomas 
Paine the martjT, the hero, the man,—when the}'who 
have, by word or deed, attempted to blacken his fair 
name, shall hide their heads, and cause humanity to 
blush for their rancor and dishonesty.” 



102 


THOMAS PAINE, 


Dr. Bennett: — “Among the great and good men 
who have lived before our time, whose fame and reputa¬ 
tion I env} T , whose character I fain would emulate, — 
prominent among them, stands our moral hero, Thomas 
Paine, a bright, radiant star in the galaxy of Free- 
thought, mental libert} r , and love of the human race, 
whose effulgence will never be dimmed, and whose clear 
light may be safely followed through all the years to 
come.” 

“ His was a brave and fearless nature, and he dared to 
oppose equally the tyranny of crowned heads and mitred 
brows.” 

‘ 4 4 Common Sense ’ was the war-cry which led a young 
nation to birth and to victory.” 

4 4 His 4 Age of Reason ’ stands to-day like a lighthouse 
on the dangerous reefs on a hazardous coast, to show the 
watchful mariner what rocks to shun, what maelstroms to 
avoid.” 

44 Does a man with such a brilliant career, one having 

7 O 

made such a magnificent record, and one to whom the 
country owes far more than it can ever pay, deserve to 
have his name maligned, his memory blackened, and all 
his actions and motives belied and misrepresented ? Is it 
honorable, is it manly, is it just? ” 

William Ware Cotter: — 

“ Let libellers’ gall-envenomed tongues 
Make bitter every word they speak; 

Time will disclose the patriot’s wrongs, 

And blanch with shame the slanderer’s cheek.” 

Rev. David Swing : — 44 He was one of the best and 
grandest men that ever trod the planet.” 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 


103 


Charles Phillips: — “Among these, there was one 
whom I could not help viewing with peculiar admiration, 
because, by the sole power of surprising genius, he had 
surmounted the disadvantages of birth and the difficulties 
of fortune. It was the celebrated Thomas Paine, a man 
who, no matter what may be the difference of opinion as 
to his principles, must ever remain a proud example of 
mind, unpatronized and unsupported, eclipsing the facti¬ 
tious beams of rank and wealth and pedigree. I never 
saw him in his captivity, or heard the revilings by which 
he has since been assailed, without cursing in my heart 
that ungenerous feeling which, cold to the necessities of 
genius, is clamorous in the publication of its defects. 

“Ye great ones of his nation ! ye pretended moralists, 
so forward now to cast your interested indignation upon 
the memory of Paine ! — where were you in the day of 
his adversity? Which of you, to assist his infant merit, 
would diminish even the surplus of your debaucheries? 
Where the mitred charity, the practical religion? Con¬ 
sistent declaimers, rail on ! What though his genius was 
the gift of Heaven, his heart the altar of friendship ! 
What though wit and eloquence and anecdote flowed 
freely from his tongue, while Conviction made her voice 
his messenger! What though thrones trembled, and 
prejudice fled, and freedom came, at his command! He 
dared to question the creed which you, believing, contra¬ 
dicted, and to despise the rank which you, boasting of, 
debased.” 

Napoleon Bonaparte : — “A statue of gold ought to 
be erected to you in every city in the universe ! I assure 
3 ^ou that I always sleep with the ‘ Rights of Man’ beneath 
my pillow.” 


104 


THOMAS PAINE, 


Andrew Jackson :— 44 Thomas Paine needs no monu¬ 
ment made by hands ; he has erected himself a monument 
in the hearts of all lovers of liberty. The 4 Rights of 
Man ’ will be more enduring than all the piles of marble 
and granite man can erect.” 


Prof. William Denton: — 44 Thomas Paine, the pa¬ 
triot, whose pen accomplished more for American liberty 
than the sword of Washington ! ” 

S. H. Preston: — 4 4 He was one of the chief grand- 
leaders of the world’s vanguard of reformers,—one of the 
serene grand-generals of the hosts of intellect. He shed 
light, not blood; he destro}'ed ignorance, not armies ; he 
was a conqueror for the sake of truth, not of glory.” 

44 He who will live forever in the history of this repub¬ 
lic as the author-hero of the Revolution; he who con¬ 
secrated a long, laborious life in both hemispheres to the 
sacred cause of humanit}'; he who, in his sublime patriot¬ 
ism, adopted the world for his country, and who, in his 
boundless philanthropy, embraced all mankind for his 
brethren ; this man, to whom America is more indebted 
than to any other man that ever trod this continent; . . . . 
this man — this great, and grand, and good, and heroic 
man — has been robbed of honor and reputation, and 
blackened and hunted by the sleuth-hounds of super¬ 
stition, as though he had been the embodied curse of 
earth.” 

44 But, so sure as the affairs of men have an eternal 
destiny, shall justice be awarded Thomas Paine. The 
flowers of poesy will be woven in amaranthine wreaths 


THE APOSTLE OE LIBERTY. 


105 


above his last resting-place, and his once-blackened name 
will whiten with purity through all the wasteless years.” 

Col. Robert G. Ingersoll : — “The time has come 
when the American people should have the manliness 
and the honor to do justice to the memory of Thomas 
Paine.” 

“He was one of the intellectual heroes, — one of the 
men to whom we are indebted. His name is associated 
forever with the Great Republic. As long as free gov¬ 
ernment exists, he will be remembered, admired, and 
honored.” 

‘ ‘ Thomas Paine was the foremost man in lighting the 
fires of liberty in the hearts of our fathers; and in the 
midnight of Valley Forge, his ‘ Crisis’ was the only star 
that glittered in the wide horizon of despair.” 

“ Thomas Paine made it impossible to write the history 
of human liberty with his name left out. He was one 
of the creators of light. He was one of the heralds of 
the dawn. He hated slavery in the name of God with 
every drop of his noble blood.” 

“ I enjoy myself when I think how free I am, and I 
thank this man for it. When I think of that, the whole 
horizon is full of glory, and joy comes to me in every ray 
of sunshine and every rustle of the winds.” 

“ He died surrounded by those who hated and despised 
him, —who endeavored to wring from the lips of death a 
recantation. But, d 3 T ing as he was, his soul stood erect 
to the last moment. Nothing like a recantation could be 
wrung from the brave lips of Thomas Paine.” 


106 


THOMAS PAINE, 


‘ 4 1 challenge the world to show that Thomas Paine 
ever wrote one line, one word, in favor of tjTanny,— in 
favor of immorality ; one line, one word, against what he 
believed to be for the highest and best interest of man¬ 
kind ; one line, one word, against justice, charity, or 
liberty.” 

44 If to love your fellow-men more than self is good¬ 
ness, Thomas Paine was good. 

44 If to be in advance of your time, to be a pioneer in 
the direction of right, is greatness, Thomas Paine was 
great. 

44 If to avow your principles and discharge 3 'our duty 
in the presence of death is heroic, Thomas Paine was a 
hero.” 

44 He died in the land his genius defended, under the 
flag he gave to the skies. Slander cannot touch him now ; 
hatred cannot reach him more. He sleeps in the sanctu¬ 
ary of the tomb, beneath the quiet of the stars.” 


Such is the testimony I bring in defence of 
Thomas Paine; such are the loving and eloquent 
tributes bestowed in honor of the mighty dead. 
And now, gentle reader, in the face of all this evi¬ 
dence, do you still believe this man to have been a 
fiend? And you, Reverend Sir, who have assisted 
in perpetuating these base slanders, honestly believ¬ 
ing them to be truths, — will you still persist in pub¬ 
lishing them to the world, or will you have the man¬ 
liness to say, as a Methodist clergyman once said, 
44 Thomas Paine is the worst-slandered man that ever 



THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 10T 


lived, and I have ignorantly helped to slander him ” ? 
I have sufficient confidence in your integrity to be¬ 
lieve that you will do him justice. 

But you, vile wretch! who, destitute of honor and 
incapable of shame, have knowingly traduced this 
great man’s character, — you will continue to spit 
your venom, and — goon. Yes, heartless monster! 
do your worst! Summon to your aid each hideous 
ally! Let Ignorance array her countless hosts; let 
the dark shades of Prejudice becloud the sky; let 
Hatred rave and curse; let the darts of Calumny 
strike thick and fast against the fair, white breast 
of Truth, and Slander clothe the tongues of all your 
minions! You strive in vain. The Crisis is past, the 
Age of Reason has dawned, Common Sense is fast 
taking the place of superstition, the Rights of Man 
are bound to triumph, and the author-hero’s name 
will gather lustre with each passing year. 


“The man is thought a knave or fool, 

Or bigot plotting crime, 

Who, for the advancement of his kind, 
Is wiser than his time. 

For him the hemlock shall distil, 

For him the axe be bared; 

For him the gibbet shall be built, 

For him the stake prepared; 

Him shall the scorn and wrath of men 
Pursue with deadly aim; 

And malice, envy, spite, and lies 
Shall desecrate his name. 


108 


THOMAS PAINE, 


“But never a truth has been destroyed. 

They may curse it, and call it crime; 

Pervert and betray, or slander and slay 
Its teachers for a time: 

But the sunshine, aye, shall light the sky, 

As round and round we run; 

And the truth shall ever come uppermost, 

And justice shall be done.” 

Ungrateful Athens bade her savior drain the 
poisoned cup. It did its work, — the spark of life 
was quenched ; but the name of Socrates shines on, 
undimmed by the flight of more than twenty centu¬ 
ries. Columbus languished in chains, forged by the 
nation he had made renowned; but no chains can 
bind the toweling fame his genius won. Religious 
zealots closed a poor old captive’s mouth; but could 
they stop the revolving earth ? could they control the 
mighty tide of scientific thought? No! the earth 
went round, the wave rolled on. To-day, the very 
church that persecuted Galileo reveres his name, 
accepts his teachings; and through his telescope — 
the instrument she once condemned — her votaries, 
with eager eyes and anxious hearts, explore the 
starry fields of heaven. It is ever so: — 

“ Truth crushed to earth shall rise again; ” 

each fierce Thermopylae she meets but proves the 
inspiration for some crowning Salamis. The wrongs 
of Thomas Paine shall be avenged. In vain his 
country passed to him the bitter cup of sorrow 


THE APOSTLE OF LIBERTY. 109 


the fetters forged to chain his noble spirit to the 
dust were forged for naught; loving lips whisper, 
14 It still moves.” Yes, onward moves the soul of 
Paine, and its resistless march is seen and felt on. 
every side. Down through the future let it take- 
its ceaseless course ; and it, “ reverberating through 
time like thunder through the sky, shall, in the dis¬ 
tance far away, waken the slumbering ages.” 









APPENDIX. 


( fi'-a. -'~ert w - • , e ‘' i, ‘ : 'V■ " " 

Oerf ^aU^dhz 1 lJ 

SPEECH OF THOMAS PAINE BEFORE THE 
NATIONAL CONVENTION OF FRANCE. 


[It is not because of its calm reasoning and simple eloquence 
that this address is here appended, but because the delivery of it 
constituted the most heroic act in the life of one of the world’s 
truest heroes. 

To realize the extreme peril in which Paine voluntarily placed 
himself in opposing the execution of Louis XVI., it is only neces¬ 
sary to contemplate the cruel fate which befell those who stood 
with him on the side of mercy, and which, but for the merest 
chance, had befallen him also. The various factions had re¬ 
solved upon the death of the king at all hazards ; and, inspired 
by such leaders as Robespierre, the terrible Danton, the fiery 
Marat, St. Just, Couthon, and the Duke of Orleans, there were 
assembled here the worst characters that France could produce, 
— hired assassins, fresh from the September massacre, whose 
garments were still reeking with the blood and brains of the 
three thousand unarmed prisoners whom they had savagely 
butchered. “We vote,” protested Lanjuinais, when the ballot¬ 
ing commenced, “under the daggers and the cannon of the 
factions ! ” In this perilous position, Paine thus addressed the 
Convention : — ] 

Citizen President, — 

My hatred and abhorrence of absolute monarchy are 
sufficiently known. They originated in principles of rea¬ 
son and conviction; nor, except with life, can they ever 
be extirpated. But my compassion for the unfortunate, 
whether friend or enemy, is equally lively and sincere. 

I voted that Louis should be tried, because it was neces¬ 
sary to afford proofs to the world of the perfid}’, corrup¬ 
tion, and abomination of the French Government. 

(Ill) 


112 


APPENDIX. 


The infinity of evidence that has been produced exposes 
them in the most glaring and hideous colors. Neverthe¬ 
less, I am inclined to believe that, if Louis Capet had 
been born in an obscure condition ; had he lived within 
the circle of an amiable and respectable neighborhood, at 
liberty to practise the duties of domestic life, — had he 
been thus situated, 1 cannot believe that he would have 
shown himself destitute of social virtues. We are, in a 
moment of fermentation like this, naturally little indul¬ 
gent to his vices, or rather to those of his government. 
We regard them with additional horror and indignation; 
not that they are more heinous than those of his predeces¬ 
sors, but because our ey T es are now open, and the veil of 
delusion at length withdrawn. Yet the lamentably de¬ 
graded state to which he is actually" reduced is surely far 
less imputable to him than to the Constituent Assembly, 
which of its own authority, without consent or advice of 
the people, restored him to the throne. 

I was present at the time of the flight or abdication of 
Louis XVI., and when he was taken and brought back. 
The proposal of restoring to him the supreme power 
struck me with amazement; and although at that time I 
was not a citizen, yet, as a citizen of the world, I em¬ 
ployed all the efforts that depended on me to prevent it. 

A small society^, composed only of five persons,—two 
of whom are now members of the Convention,—took at 
that time the name of The Republican Club (Societe 
Republicaine). This society opposed the restoration of 
Louis, not so much on account of his personal offences as 
in order to overthrow monarchy, and to erect on its ruins 
the republican system and an equal representation. 

With this design, I traced out, in the English language, 
certain propositions, which were translated, with some 
trifling alteration, and signed by Achilles Duchelclet, 
Lieutenant-General in the army of the French Republic, 
and at that time one of the five members which composed 
our little party ; the law requiring the signature of a citi¬ 
zen at the bottom of each printed paper. 

The paper was indignantly torn by Malouet, and brought 


SPEECH IN THE CONVENTION. 113 


forth in this very room as an article of accusation 
against the person who had signed'it, the author, and 
their adherents ; but such is the revolution of events that 
this paper is now revived and brought forth for a very 
opposite purpose. 

To remind the nation of the error of that unfortunate 
day, — that fatal error of not having then banished Louis 
XVI. from its bosom,—the paper in question was con¬ 
ceived, in the following terms ; and I bring it forward 
this day to plead in favor of his exile preferably to his 
death: — 

u Brethren and Fellow-citizens, — The serene tranquil¬ 
lity, the mutual confidence, which prevailed amongst us 
during the time of the late king’s escape, the indifference 
with which we beheld him return, are unequivocal proofs 
that the absence of the king is more desirable than his 
presence; and that he is not only a political superfluity, 
but a grievous burden pressing hard on the whole nation. 

44 Let us not be imposed on by sophisms : all that con¬ 
cerns this man is reduced to four points. He has abdi¬ 
cated the throne in having fled from his post. Abdication 
and desertion are not characterized by length of absence, 
but by the single act of flight. In the present instance, 
the act is everything, and the time nothing. 

4 4 The nation can never give back its confidence to a 
man who, false to his trust, perjured to his oath, con¬ 
spires a clandestine flight, obtains a fraudulent passport, 
conceals a king of France under the disguise of a valet, 
directs his course towards a frontier covered wflth traitors 
and deserters, and evidently meditates a return into our 
country with a force capable of imposing his own despotic 
laws. Ought his flight to be considered as his own act, 
or the act of those who fled with him? Was it a spon¬ 
taneous resolution of his own, or was it inspired into 
him by others ? The alternative is immaterial: whether 
fool or hypocrite, idiot or traitor, he has proved himself 
equally unworthy of the vast and important functions that 
had been delegated to him. 


114 


APPENDIX. 


“ In every sense that the question can be considered, 
the reciprocal obligations which subsisted between us are 
dissolved. He holds no longer authority; w r e owe him 
no longer obedience; we see in him no more than an 
indifferent person; we can regard him only as Louis 
Capet. 

“ The history of France presents little else than a long 
series of public calamity, which takes its source from the 
vices of her kings: we have been the wretched victims 
that have never ceased to suffer either for them or by 
them. The catalogue of their oppressions was complete ; 
but, to complete the sum of their crimes, treason was yet 
wanting. Now the only vacancy is filled up ; the dread¬ 
ful list is full; the sj^stem is exhausted; there are no 
remaining errors for them to commit; their reign is con¬ 
sequently at an end. 

“ As to the personal safety of Mr. Louis Capet, it is 
so much the more confirmed, as France will not stop to 
degrade herself by a spirit of revenge against a wretch who 
has dishonored himself. In defending a just and glorious 
cause, it is not possible to degrade it; and the universal 
tranquillit}' which prevails is an undeniable proof that a 
free people know how to respect themselves.” 

Having thus explained the principles and exertions 
of the Republicans at that fatal period when Louis was 
reinstated in full possession of the executive power which 
by his flight had been suspended, I return to the subject, 
and to the deplorable condition in which the man is now 
actually involved. What was neglected, at the time of 
which I have been speaking, has been since brought about 
by the force of necesshy. 

The wilful, treacherous defects in the former Constitu¬ 
tion had been brought to light; the continual alarm of 
treason and conspiracy roused the nation, and produced 
eventually a second revolution. The people have beaten 
down royalty, never, never to rise again; they have 
brought Louis Capet to the bar, and demonstrated, in the 
face of the whole world, the intrigues, the cabals, the 


SPEECH IN THE CONVENTION. 115 


falsehood, corruption, and rooted depravity of his govern¬ 
ment : there remains, then, only one question to be con¬ 
sidered, — What is to be done with this man? 

For myself, I freely confess that, when I reflect on the 
unaccountable folly that restored the executive power to 
his hands, all covered as he was with perjuries and 
treason, I am far more read}’ to condemn the Constituent 
Assembly than the unfortunate prisoner, Louis Capet. 

But, abstracted from every other consideration, there is 
one circumstance in his life which ought to cover, or at 
least to palliate, a great number of his transgressions; 
and this very circumstance affords the French nation a 
blessed occasion of extricating itself from the yoke of 
its kings without defiling itself in the impurities of their 
blood. 

It is to France alone, I know, that the United States of 
America owe that support which enabled them to shake 
off an unjust and tyrannical yoke. The ardor and zeal 
which she displayed to provide both men and money were 
the natural consequences of a thirst for liberty. But as 
the nation at that time, restrained by the shackles of her 
own government, could only act by means of a monarchi¬ 
cal organ, this organ, whatever in other respects the 
object might be, certainly performed a good, a great 
action. 

Let, then, these United States be the safeguard and as}'- 
lum of Louis Capet. There, hereafter, far removed from 
the miseries and crimes of ro}’alty, he may learn, from the 
constant aspect of public prosperity, that the true system 
of government consists in fair, equal, and honorable rep¬ 
resentation. In relating this circumstance, and in sub¬ 
mitting this proposition, I consider myself as a citizen of 
both countries. 

I submit it as a citizen of America who feels the debt 
of gratitude which he owes to every Frenchman. I 
submit it also as a man who cannot forget that kings 
are subject to human frailties. I support my proposition 
as a citizen of the French Republic, because it appears 
to me the best, the most politic measure that can be 
adopted. 


116 


APPENDIX. 


As far as my experience in public life extends, I have 
ever observed that the great mass of the people are in¬ 
variably just, both in their intentions and in their objects ; 
but the true method of accomplishing that effect does not 
always show itself in the first instance. For example, 
the English nation had groaned under the despotism of 
the Stuarts. Hence Charles the First lost his life ; yet 
Charles the Second was restored to all the full plenitude 
of power which his father had lost. Forty years had not 
expired when the same family strove to re-establish their 
ancient oppression : so the nation then‘banished from its 
territories the whole'race. The remedy was effectual: 
the Stuart family sunk into obscurity, confounded itself 
with the multitude, and is at length extinct. 

The French nation has carried her measures of govern¬ 
ment to a greater length. France is not satisfied with 
exposing the guilt of the monarch: she has penetrated 
into the vices and horrors of the monarchy. She has 
shown them clear as daylight, and forever crushed that 
system ; and he, whoever he may be, that should ever 
dare to reclaim those rights, would be regarded, not as a 
pretender, but punished as a traitor. 

Two brothers of Louis Capet have banished themselves 
from the country, but they are obliged to comply with the 
spirit and etiquette of the courts where the}' reside*. They 
can advance no pretensions on their own account so long 
as Louis shall live. 

The history of monarchy in France was a system preg¬ 
nant with crimes and murders, cancelling all natural ties, 
even those by which brothers are united. We know how 
often they have assassinated each other to pave a way to 
power. As those hopes which the Emigrants had reposed 
in Louis XVI. are fled, the last that remains rests upon 
his death ; and their situation inclines them to desire this 
catastrophe, that they may once again rally round a more 
active chief, and try one further effort under the fortune of 
the ci-devant Monsieur and d’Artois. That such an enter¬ 
prise would precipitate them into a new abyss of calamity 
and disgrace, it is not difficult to foresee. Yet it might 


SPEECH IN THE CONVENTION. 117 


be attended with mutual loss ; and it is our duty, as 
legislators, not to spill a drop of blood when our purpose 
may be effectually accomplished without it. It has been 
alread} f proposed to abolish the punishment of death, and 
it is with infinite satisfaction that I recollect the humane 
and excellent oration pronounced by Robespierre on that 
subject in the Constituent Assembly. This cause must 
find its advocates in every corner where enlightened 
politicians and lovers of humanity exist; and it ought, 
above all, to find them in this Assembly. 

Bad governments have trained the human race, and 
inured it to the sanguinary arts and refinements of pun¬ 
ishment ; and it is exactly the same punishment, that has 
so long shocked the sight and tormented the patience of • 
the people, which now, in their turn, they practise in 
revenge on their oppressors 

But it becomes us to be strictly on our guard against 
the abomination and perversity of such examples. As 
France has been the first of European nations to amend 
her government, let her also be the first to abolish the 
punishment of death, and to find out a milder and more 
effectual substitute. 

In the particular case now under consideration, I sub¬ 
mit the following propositions: 1st, That the National 
Convention shall pronounce the sentence of banishment 
on Louis and his family; 2d, That Louis Capet shall be 
detained in prison till the end of the war, and then the 
sentence of banishment to be executed. 


118 


APPENDIX. 


THE WILL OF THOMAS PAINE. 

The people of the State of New York, by the grace of God 
free and independent, to all to whom these presents shall 
come or may concern, send greeting. 

Know 3 'e that the annexed is a true copy of the will of 
Thomas Paine, deceased, as recorded in the office of 
our Surrogate in and for the city and county of New 
York. In testimony whereof, we have caused the seal 
of office of our said Surrogate to be hereunto affixed. 

Witness, Silvanus Miller, Esq., Surrogate of said 
county, at the city of New York, the twelfth day 
of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and nine, and of our independence the 
thirty-fourth. Silvanus Miller. 


The Last Will and Testament of me, the Subscriber, 
Thomas Paine. 

Reposing confidence in my Creator, God, and in no 
other being (for I know of no other, nor believe in any 
other), I, Thomas Paine, of the State of New York, 
author of the work entitled “ Common Sense,” written in 
Philadelphia in 1775, and published in that city the begin¬ 
ning of Januaiy, 1776 (which awaked America to a Dec¬ 
laration of Independence on the fourth of July following, 
which was as fast as the work could spread through such 
an extensive country) ; author also of the several num¬ 
bers of the “American Crisis,” sixteen in all, published 
occasionally during the progress of the Revolutionary War 
(the last is on the peace) ; author also of the “ Rights of 
Man,” Parts the First and Second, written and published 
in London in 1791 and ’92 ; author also of a work on 
religion, “Age of Reason,” Parts the First and Second 
(N.B., I have a Third Part by me in manuscript, and an 



THE WILL OF THOMAS PAINE. 119 


answer to the Bishop of LandafF) ; author also of a work, 
lately published, entitled 44 Examination of the Passages 
in the New Testament Quoted from the Old, and called 
Prophecies Concerning Jesus Christ,” and showing there 
are no prophecies of any such person ; author also of sev¬ 
eral other works not here enumerated, 44 Dissertations on 
the First Principles of Government,” 44 Decline and Fall 
of the English System of Finance,” 44 Agrarian Justice,” 
etc., etc., — make this my last will and testament: that 
is to say, I give and bequeath to my executors hereinafter 
appointed, Walter Morton and Thomas Addis Emmet, 
thirty shares I hold in the New York Phoenix Insurance 
Company, which cost me 1470 dollars (they are worth 
now upwards of 1500 dollars), and all my movable ef¬ 
fects, and also the money that may be in my trunk or 
elsewhere at the time of my decease, paying thereout the 
expenses of my funeral, in trust as to the said shares, 
movables, and mone} 7 , for Margaret Brazier Bonneville, 
wife of Nicholas Bonneville,-of Paris, for her sole and 
separate use, and at her own disposal, notwithstanding 
her coverture. As to my farm in New Rochelle, I give, 
devise, and bequeath the same to my said executors, 
Walter Morton and Thomas Addis Emmet, and to the 
survivor of them, his heirs and assigns forever, in trust, 
nevertheless, to sell and dispose of the north side thereof, 
now in the occupation of Andrew A. Dean, beginning at 
the west end of the orchard and running, in a line with the 

land sold to-Coles, to the end of the farm; and to 

apply the money arising from such sale as hereinafter 
directed. I give to my friends, Walter Morton, of the 
New York Phoenix Insurance Company, and Thomas 
Addis Emmet, counsellor-at-law, late of Ireland, two 
hundred dollars each, and one hundred dollars to Mrs. 
Palmer, widow of Eliliu Palmer, late of New York, to be 
paid out of the money arising from said sale ; and I give 
the remainder of the money arising from that sale, one- 
half thereof to Clio Rickman, of High or Upper Mary-la- 
bone Street, London, and the other half to Nicholas 
Bonneville, of Paris, husband of Margaret B. Bonneville 



120 


APPENDIX. 


aforesaid ; and as to the south part of said farm, contain¬ 
ing upward of one hundred acres, in trust, to rent out the 
same or otherwise put it to profit, as shall be found most 
advisable, and to pay the rents and profit thereof to the 
said Margaret B. Bonneville, in trust for her children, 
Benjamin Bonneville and Thomas Bonneville, their edu¬ 
cation and maintenance, until the}' come to the age of 
twenty-one years, in order that she may bring them well 
up, give them good and useful learning, and instruct them 
in their duty to God and the practise of morality,—the rent 
of the land, or the interest of the money for which it may 
be sold, as hereinafter mentioned, to be employed in their 
education; and after the youngest of the said children 
shall have arrived at the age of twenty-one years, in 
further trust, to convey the same to the said children, 
share and share alike, in fee simple. But if it shall be 
thought advisable by my executors and executrix, or the 
survivor or survivors of them, at any time before the 
youngest of said children shall come of age, to sell and 
dispose of the said south side of the said farm,—in that case 
I hereby authorize and empower my said executors to sell 
and dispose of the same ; and I direct that the money 
arising from such sale be put into stock, either in the 
United States Bank stock or New York Phoenix Insurance 
Company stock, the interest or dividends thereof to be 
applied, as is already directed, for the education and 
maintenance of the said children, and the principal to be 
transferred to the said children, or the survivor of them, 
on his or their coming of age. I know not if the society 
of people called Quakers admit a person to be buried in 
their burying-ground who does not belong to their society ; 
but if they do, or will admit me, I would prefer being 
buried there: my father belonged to that profession, and 
I was partly brought up in it. But, if it is not consistent 
with their rules to do this, I desire to be buried on my 
farm at New Rochelle; the place where I am to be 
buried to be a square of twelve feet, to be enclosed with 
rows of trees and a stone or post and railed fence, with 
a headstone with ray name and age engraved upon it, 


SPEECH OF MR. SAMPSON. 


121 


author of “Common Sense.” I nominate, constitute, and 
appoint Walter Morton, of the New York Phoenix Insur¬ 
ance Company, and Thomas Addis Emmet, counsellor-at- 
law, late of Ireland, and Margaret B. Bonneville, my 
executors and executrix to this my last will and testa¬ 
ment, requesting them, the said Walter Morton and 
Thomas Addis Emmet, that they will give what assist¬ 
ance they conveniently can to Mrs. Bonneville, and see' 
that the children be well brought up. Thus placing con¬ 
fidence in their friendship, I herewith take my final leave 
of them and of the world. I have lived an honest and 
useful life to mankind ; my time has been spent in doing 
good ; and I die in perfect composure and resignation to 
the will of my Creator, God. 

Dated this eighteenth day of January, in the year one 
thousand eight hundred and nine ; and I have also signed 
my name to the other sheet of this will in testimony of 
its being a part thereof. 

Thomas Paine, [l. s.] 

Signed, sealed, and published and declared by the testator 
in our presence, who; at his request and in the presence 
of each other, have set our names as witnesses thereto, 
the words “published and declared” first interlined. 

William Keese. 

James Angevine. 

Cornelius Ryder 


SPEECH OF MR. SAMPSON ON THE TRIAL OP 
JAMES CHEETHAM. 

[One of the most devoted friends of Paine in France was 
Nicholas Bonneville. Bonneville was in affluent circumstances, 
and edited a Republican paper in Paris; but, on the accession of 
Bonaparte to the supreme power, his paper was suppressed and 
his fortune ruined. With characteristic gratitude, Paine offered 
to Bonneville and his family an asylum in America, and at his 
death bequeathed to them the greater portion of his estate. 
Cheetham made this generous act the basis of an atrocious cal- 


122 


APPENDIX. 


umny, published in his “Life of Paine,” reflecting upon the 
honor of Madame Bonneville. Suit was promptly brought 
against Cheetham, which resulted in his conviction and punish¬ 
ment. The following extracts from the speech of Mr. Sampson, 
on his trial, justly characterize the author and his infamous 
work: — ] 

In every other grief than that which this historian has 
inflicted on her, the innocent find comfort; for innocence 
is, in all other wrongs against all other strokes of man’s 
injustice or oppression, a sevenfold shield. Not so where 
woman’s honor is assailed : suspicion there is worse than 
death itself. It is that for which alone the innocent wile 
of Crnsar was repudiated. The man who dares attack it 
is, of all other criminals, the greatest. If he be not a 
traitor, it is for this alone that he is worse. For many a 
man has suffered as a traitor, whom after-ages have re¬ 
vered and honored. But never was he who set his cloven 
hoof upon a woman’s honor worthy the name of man. 


[Here the defendant rose and claimed the protection of the 
court, not so much with a desire to prevent the range of the 
ingenious counsel as to prevent the utterance of personalities, 
that it would not be prudent, perhaps, to repeat out of court. 

While the defendant was addressing the court, the counsel calmly 
advanced, and, taking a pinch of snuff, modestly observed that 
what he was doing was in court, and what was to be done out of 
court was not to be talked of here. Then, pointing to the de¬ 
fendant, and casting a significant look upon him, he proceeded.] 

This unrighteous man has, by this very movement of his 
choler, justified all that I can ever say. If he complains 
of personalities, — he who is hardened in every gross 
abuse; he who lives reviling and reviled; who might 
construct himself a monument with no other materials 
but those records to which he is a party, and in which he 
stands enrolled as an offender, — if he cannot sit still to 
hear his accusation, but calls for the protection of the 
court against a counsel whose duty it is to make his 
crimes appear, how does she deserve protection whom 
he has driven to the sad necessity of coming here to 


SPEECH OE ME. SAMPSON. 


123 


vindicate her honor from those personalities which he has 
lavished on her ? 

But it is well, and I am glad that I was interrupted; 
for the very evil genius that waits upon his life has here, 
for once, worked to an honest end. For, while my voice 
was almost choked with crowding truths struggling for 

o oo o 

utterance, and while the swell of honest indignation rose 
even to suffocation, he came forward and pointed my 
attention to that subject which first deserved rebuke. 

I had said that, in the catalogue of crimes, none could 
be found more base than his. Not treason, for the 
reasons I have given; not murder, for he who murders 
life murders all sorrow with it. But he has doomed this 
lady to days of sorrow and to a lingering death. The 
pirate meets his foe or seeks his prey where death and 
danger stare him in the face ; and, -when he falls before 
the sword of justice, some sympathy may mingle with his 
shame, and men regret that one so brave in manly enter¬ 
prise should fall so ignominiously. But here is an attack 
upon a woman far from her husband’s side, from friends 
and home, whose infant sons are yet too tender to avenge 
their mother’s wrongs. The forger, who counterfeits some 
instrument to cheat you of your money, for that crime 
spins out his wretched days in hard captivity, in infamy 
and labor: will you compare his crime with that of one 
who, by his fabricated histories , pilfers from helpless 
woman the only precious jewel which she prizes, — her 
more than life, her all, — her spotless honor? That which 
the robber or the thief purloins may be retrieved, or may 
be spared; but not the worth of twenty thousand beings 
such as the libeller, were he worth twenty thousand times 
as much as ever he will be, reform how he may, would pay 
the twenty-thousandth part of that which he has taken. 

There was a monastery where deadly crimes were ex¬ 
piated called La Trappe: when sinners entered it they 
made a terrible vow of everlasting silence, and from that 
awful moment never uttered a -word, and daily with their 
nails dug their own graves. When the midnight bell 
tolled them to prayer, the}' left their solitary cells, and 


124 


APPENDIX. 


moved with noiseless step through gloomy cloisters and 
whispering aisles, with downcast look, turning their rosa¬ 
ries, but never spoke. Such is the penitence, such the ever¬ 
lasting silence, that would become the ruthless slanderer 
of woman’s honor. It is argued that everything should 
be intended in favor of this defendant, who has written 
so godly a work against the prince of deists and for the 
Holy Gospel. I am sorry to hear such arguments ad¬ 
vanced ; they go almost to burlesque religion itself. He 
a man of God! He write for the love of God! His 
book a godly book, — a vile, obscene, and filthy compilation, 
which bears throughout the character of rancorous malice, 
and tramples upon every Christian charity! Libel an 
innocent woman, lie and calumniate, for the sake of 
Christianity! If this be the only godly deed this man 
has done, I pray to Heaven to be more merciful to him 
than he has been to Mrs. Bonneville, and that for this 
very work of godliness he be not damned. 


COBBETT’S HISTORY OF THE RECANTATION 
CALUMNY. 


It is a part of the business of a press sold to the cause 
of corruption to calumniate those, dead or alive, who have 
most effectually labored against that cause ; and, as Paine 
was the most powerful and effectual of those laborers, so 
to calumniate him has been an object of their peculiar 
attention and care. Among other things said against 
this famous man is, that he recanted before he died; 
and that in his last illness he discovered horrible fears 
of death. This is, to be sure, a very good answer to 
what these same persons say about his hardened Infi¬ 
delity. But it is a pure, unadulterated falsehood. This 
falsehood, which I shall present^ trace to its origin (the 
heart of a profound lyypocrite), was cried about the streets 
of Liverpool when I landed there in November last. 


THE RECANTATION CALUMNY. 125 


Thence it found its way to the grand receptacle and dis¬ 
tributor of falsehood and calumny, the London press, 
which has sent it all over this kingdom. One country 
paper, however, pre-eminent in all that is foul and mean, 
affects to possess original matter and authentic informa¬ 
tion on the subject; and, indeed, it pledges itself for the 
character of the gentleman from whom it says it has re¬ 
ceived the pretended authentic account. The country 
paper I allude to is the “ Norwich Mercury,” printed and 
published by one Burks. 

The “ Norwich Mercury” did not imagine that any one 
would take the pains to expose this tissue of falsehoods. 
In the first place, why does he not name his “gentleman” 
of such excellent character? How these informers skulk ! 
Mr. Burks can pledge himself for the character of the 
gentleman informer; but where are we to get a pledge 
for the character of Mr. Burks, who, if we are to judge 
from this act of his, stands in need of very good sponsors ? 

Let us look a little at the internal evidence of the false¬ 
hood of the story. Mr. Paine possessed at his death an 
unencumbered estate of two hundred and fifty acres of 
land, not more than twenty miles from New York. He 
possessed a considerable sum besides. These he left by 
will. Will any one believe that he was, on his dying-bed, 
in the want of proper nourishment, and that he was in a 
deplorable state as to apartments and necessaries ? Then 
was it likety that when a neighbor’s maid-servant went to 
carry him a little present of sweetmeats, or the like, that 
he would begin a conversation on theology with her? 
And is it not monstrous to suppose that he would call 
himself the Devil’s agent to her, and not leave behind him 
any recantation at all, though he had such ample time for 
doing it, and though this confidant was so ready to re¬ 
ceive it and to take care of it ? The story is false upon 
the face of it; and nothing but a simpleton, or something 
a great deal worse, would have given it circulation and 
affected to believe it to be true. 

I happen to know the origin of this story, and I possess 
the real original document whence have proceeded the 


126 


APPENDIX. 


clivers editions of the falsehood, of the very invention of 
which I was perhaps myself the innocent cause ! 

About two years ago I, being then on Long Island, 
published my intention of writing an account of the life, 
labors, and death of Paine. Soon after this a Quaker of 
New York, named Charles Collins, made many applica¬ 
tions for an interview with me, which at last he obtained. 
I found that his object w r as to persuade me that Paine had 
recanted. I laughed at him and sent him awa}\ But he 
returned again and again to the charge. He wanted me 
to promise that I would say that “it was said” that Paine 
had recanted. “ No,” said I, “but I will sa} r that you 
say it, and that }’ou tell a lie, unless you prove the truth 
of what you say ; and, if 3 ’ou do that, I shall gladty insert 
the fact.” This posed “Friend Charle} T ,” whom I sus¬ 
pected to be a most consummate hypocrite. He had a 
sodden face, a simper, and manoeuvred his features pre¬ 
cisely like the most perfidious wretch that I have known, 
or ever read or heard of. He was precise^’ the reverse 
of my honest, open, and sincere Quaker friends, the Pauls 
of Pennsylvania. Friend Charley plied me with remon¬ 
strances and reasonings; but I alwa} r s answered him, 
“ Give me proof, name persons, state times, state precise 
words, or I denounce 3 'ou as a liar.” Thus put to his 
trump, Friend Charle 3 r resorted to the aid of a person 
of his own stamp; and at last he brought me a paper, 
containing matter of which the above statement of Mr. 
Burks is a garbled edition! This paper, very cautiousty 
and craftily drawn up, contained only the initials of 
names. This would not do. I made him, at last, put 
down the full name and the address of the informer, — 
“ Mary Hinsdale, No. 10 Anthony Street, New York.” 
I got this from Friend Cliarle 3 r some time about June 
last, and had no opportune of visiting the party till late 
in October, just before I sailed. 

The informer was a Quaker woman, who, at the time of 
Mr. Paine’s last illness, was a servant in the family of 
Mr. Willet Hicks, an eminent merchant, a man of ex¬ 
cellent character, a Quaker, and even, I believe, a Quaker 


THE RECANTATION CALUMNY. 127 


preacher. Mr. Hicks, a kind and liberal and rich man, 
visited Mr. Paine in his illness ; and from his house, which 
was near that of Mr. Paine, little nice things (as is the 
practice in America) were sometimes sent to him, of 
which this servant, Friend Mary, was the bearer: and this 
was the way in which the lying cant got into the room of 
Mr. Paine. 

To Friend Mary, therefore, I went on the twenty-sixth 
of October last, with Friend Charley’s paper in m 3 ' pocket. 
I found her in a lodging in a back room up one pair of 
stairs. 1 knew that I had no common cunning to set m 3 ' 
wit against. I began with all the art that I was master 
of. I had got a prodigious^ broad-brimmed hat on. 1 
patted a little child that she had sitting beside her; I 
called her Friend ; and pla 3 'ed all the awkward tricks of 
an undisciplined wheedlcr. But I was compelled to come 
quick^' to business. She asked, “What’s tin' name, 
Friend?” and the moment I said, “William Cobbett,” 
up went her mouth as tight as a purse ! Sack-making 
appeared to be her occupation; and, that I might not 
extract through her e 3 *es that which she was resolved I 
should not get out of her mouth, she went and took up 
a sack and began to sew, and not another look or glance 
could I get from her. 

However, I took out m 3 ’ paper, read it, and, stopping 
at several points, asked her if it was true. Talk of the 
Jesuits, indeed ! The whole tribe of Lo 3 T ola, who had 
shaken so man 3 ’ kingdoms to their base, never possessed 
the millionth part of the cunning of this drab-colored 
little woman, whose face, simplicit 3 ' and innocence seemed 
to have chosen as the place of their triumph! She 
shuffled ; she evaded ; she equivocated ; she warded off; 
she affected not to understand me, not to understand the 
paper, not to remember: and all this with so much 
seeming simplicit 3 ’ and single-heartedness, and in a voice 
so mild, so soft, and so sweet, that, if the Devil had been 
sitting where I was, he would certainly have jumped up 
and hugged her to his bosom ! 

The result was, that it was so long ago that she could 


128 


APPENDIX. 


not speak positively to any part of the matter; that she 
would not say that any part of the paper was true ; that 
she had never seen the paper; and that she had never 
given Friend Charley (for so she called him) authority to 
say anything about the matter in her name. I pushed 
her closely upon the subject of the “unhappy French 
female,” — asked her whether she should know her again. 
“ Oh, no, Friend ! I tell thee that I have no recollection 
of any person or thing that I saw at Thomas Paine’s 
house.” The truth is, that the cunning little thing knew 
that the French lady was at hand, and that detection was 
easy if she had said that she should know her upon sight. 

I had now nothing to do but to bring Friend Charley’s 
nose to the grindstone. But Charley, though so pious a 
man and doubtless in great haste to get to everlasting 
bliss, had moved out of the city for fear of the fever, not 
liking apparently to go off to the next "world in a yellow 
skin. And thus he escaped me, who sailed from New 
York in four days afterward, or Charley should have 
found that there was something else on this side of the 
grave pretty nearly as troublesome and as dreadful as the 
yellow fever. 

This is, I think, a pretty good instance of the length to 
which hypocrisy will go. The w r hole, as far as relates to 
recantation and to the “ unhappy French female,” is a lie 
from the beginning to the end. Mr. Paine declares in his 
last will that he retains all his publicly expressed opinions 
as to religion. His executors, and many other gentlemen 
of undoubted veracity, had the same declaration from his 
dying lips. Mr. Willet Hicks visited him till nearly the 
last. This gentleman says that there w*as no change of 
opinion intimated to him; and will an}’ man believe that 
Paine would have withheld from Mr. Hicks that which he 
was so forward to communicate to Mr. Hicks’ servant-girl? 

Observe, reader, that in this tissue of falsehoods is in¬ 
cluded a most foul and venomous slander on a woman of 
virtue and of spotless honor. But hypocrites will stick at 
nothing. Calumny is their weapon, and a base press is 
the hand to wield it. Mr. Burks, of Norwich, will not 


MANCHESTER RESOLUTIONS. 129 


insert this article, nor will he acknowledge his error. He 
knows that the calumny which he has circulated has done 
what he intended it to do ; and he, and the “ gentleman” 
for whose character he pledges himself, will wholly disre¬ 
gard good men’s contempt, so long as it does not diminish 
their gains. 

This is not at all a question of religion. It is a ques¬ 
tion of moral truth. Whether Mr. Paine’s opinions were 
correct or erroneous, has nothing to do with this matter. 

William Cobbett. 

The most frantic efforts were made to wring a recantation 
from Paine before his death. This failed ; but, could the public 
be led to believe that such was the case, the effect would be the 
same as though he really had recanted. If so distinguished a 
man as William Cobbett could be convinced that this was true 
and induced to publish it to the world as a fact, the work would 
be practically accomplished. Hence the persistent efforts made 
to have him insert it in his proposed biography. 

It must not be supposed that Collins was the prime mover in 
this undertaking, but merely the hired tool employed in its exe¬ 
cution. Mr. Hicks states that he could have had almost any sum 
had he declared or even intimated that Paine recanted; and it is 
not unreasonable to believe that Collins was well paid for his ser¬ 
vices. As to Mary Hinsdale, although Cobbett supposed that she 
had really visited Paine, Mr. Hicks positively asserts that she 
never saw him. In the neighborhood where this woman lived 
she was universally regarded as a low, disreputable character, 
particularly notorious for her lying propensities. 

Such is the history of this infamous calumny. It may appear 
cruel to thus ruthlessly tear from the evangelist’s sermon one of 
its most effective ornaments: but truth is certainly as high as 
any creed, even if that creed be true; and a religion that can sur¬ 
vive only upon the ruins of dead men's characters better perish. 


MANCHESTER RESOLUTIONS. 

At a meeting of the Manchester Constitutional Society, 
held this day, it was unanimously 

Resolved , That the thanks of this Society are due to 
Mr. Thomas Paine for the publication of his “ Second 
Part of 4 The Rights of Man,’ combining Principle and 


130 


A PP ENDIX. 


Practice,” — a work of the highest importance to every 
nation under heaven, but particularly to this, as contain¬ 
ing excellent and practical plans for an immediate and 
considerable reduction of the public expenditure ; for the 
prevention of wars; for the extension of our manufac¬ 
tures and coihmerce ; for the education of the young ; for 
the comfortable support of the aged ; for the better main¬ 
tenance of the poor of ever} r description ; and, finally, 
for lessening greatly, and without delay, the enormous 
load of taxes under which this country at present la¬ 
bors. 

That this Society congratulate their countrymen at 
large on the influence which Mr. Paine’s publications 
appear to have had in procuring the repeal of some op¬ 
pressive taxes in the present session of Parliament: and 
the}^ hope that this adoption of a small part of Mr. Paine’s 
ideas will be followed by the most strenuous exertions to 
accomplish a complete reform in the present inadequate 
state of the representation of the people; and that the 
other great plans of public benefit, which Mr. Paine has 
so powerfully recommended, will be speedily carried into 
effect. 

Thomas Walker, President. 

Samuel Jackson, Secretary. 

March 13, 1792. 


SHEFFIELD RESOLUTIONS. 

This Society (Sheffield Society for Constitutional In¬ 
formation), composed chiefly of the manufacturers of 
Sheffield, began about four months ago, and is already 
increased to nearly two thousand members, and is daily 
increasing, exclusive of the adjacent towns and villages 
who are forming themselves into similar societies. 

Considering, as we do, that the want of knowledge and 
information, in the general mass of the people, has ex¬ 
posed them to numberless impositions and abuses, the 


PENNSYLVANIA ASSEMBLY. 131 


exertions of this Society are directed to the acquirement 
of useful knowledge, and to spread the same as far as 
our endeavors and abilities can extend. 

We declare that we have derived more true knowl¬ 
edge from the two works of Mr. Thomas Paine, entitled 
“ Rights of Man,” Parts the First and Second, than from 
any author on the subject. The practice as well as the 
principle of government is laid down in those works, in a 
manner so clear and irresistibly convincing, that this Soci¬ 
ety do hereby resolve to give their thanks to Mr. Paine 
for his two said publications, entitled “ Rights of Man,” 
Parts First and Second. 

, Resolved unanimously , That the thanks of this Society 
be given to Mr. Paine for the affectionate concern he has 
shown in his second work in behalf of the poor, the infant, 
and the aged, who, notwithstanding the opulence which 
blesses other parts of the community, are, by the grievous 
weight of taxes, rendered the miserable victims of poverty 
and wretchedness. 


B}’ order of the Committee. 

David Martin, Chairman. 

March 14, 1792. 


ACT OF PENNSYLVANIA GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 

Whereas , during the late Revolution, and particularly 
in the most tiying and perilous times thereof, many very 
eminent services were rendered to the people of the 
United States by Thomas Paine, Esq., accompanied with 
sundry distinguished instances of fidelity, patriotism, and 
disinterestedness; 

And whereas the said Thomas Paine did, during the 
whole progress of the Revolution, voluntarily devote him¬ 
self to the service of the public, without accepting rec¬ 
ompense therefor, and, moreover, did decline taking or 



132 


APPENDIX. 


receiving the profits which authors are entitled to on the 
sale of their literary works, but relinquished them for the 
better accommodation of the country, and for the honor of 
the public cause ; 

And whereas , besides the knowledge which the House 
has of the services of the said Thomas Paine, the same 
having been recommended to us by His Excellency the 
President and the Supreme Executive Council of the 
State, of the 16th of December last past, and by the 
friendly offices of the late patriotic Commander-in-chief, 
General Washington,— 

Be it enacted , and it is hereby enacted, by the Repre¬ 
sentatives of the freemen of the Commonwealth of Penn¬ 
sylvania, in General Assembly met, and by the authority 
of the same, that, as a temporary recompense to the said 
Thomas Paine, and until suitable provision shall be fur¬ 
ther made, either federally by Congress or otherwise, the 
Supreme Executive Council be authorized and empow¬ 
ered to draw on the Treasurer of this State for the sum 
of £500 in favor of and payable to the said Thomas Paine. 

Signed, by order of the House, 

John Bayard, Speaker. 


RESOLUTIONS OF UNITED STATES CONGRESS. 


Resolved , That the earl} 7 , unsolicited, and continued 
labors of Mr. Thomas Paine, in explaining and enforcing 
the principles of the late Revolution by ingenious and 
timely publications upon the nature of liberty and civil 
government, have been well received by the citizens of 
these States, and merit the approbation of Congress ; and 
that, in consideration of these services and the benefits 
produced thereby, Mr. Paine is entitled to a liberal grati¬ 
fication from the United States. 

Friday, August 26, 1785. 


THE AUTHOR-HERO. 


133 


Resolved , That the Board of Treasury take order for 
paying to Mr. Thomas Paine the sum of three thousand 
dollars, for the considerations mentioned in the resolution 
of the 26 th of August last. 

Monday, October 3, 1785. 


WASHINGTON TO PAINE. 

Rocky Hill, Sept. 10, 1783. 

I have learned since I have been at this place that you 
are at Bordentown, — whether for the sake of retirement 
or econom}’, I know not. Be it for either, for both, or 
whatever it may, if you will come to this place and par¬ 
take with me, I shall be exceedingly glad to see you at it. 

Your presence may remind Congress of 3'our past ser¬ 
vices to this country ; and, if it is in my power to impress 
them, command my best exertions with freedom, as they 
will be rendered cheerfully by one who entertains a lively 
sense of the importance of your works, and who, with 
much pleasure, subscribes himself 

Your sincere friend, 

G. Washington. 


THE AUTHOR-HERO. 

Real* at the Celebration of the Birthday of Thomas Paine, 
at St. Louis, January 29 , 1874 . 

“ When buried heroes come to life, 

And speak in memories of the past, 

Columbia’s army, in the strife 
For liberty, shall not be last; 

And, nobly marching with the throng 

Who fought and bled for Freedom’s reign, 

Shall come the man of thought and song, — 

The author-hero, Thomas Paine. 



134 


APPENDIX. 


“ When France shall lift her banners fair, 
And brighter hopes shall dawn once more, 
In counting up her jewels rare 
Slie‘11 not forget the days of yore. 

For when the name of Lafayette 
Shall summon others in its train, 

There’s one she never will forget,— 

The author-hero, Thomas Paine. 

“ When England’s pride shall be to sing 
Of those who swell her grand array 
More noble yet than lord or king, 

Great Nature’s aristocracy; 

By meed of service fitly done, 

By manhood raised in heart and brain, 
Recalled shall be her outlawed son,— 

The author-hero, Thomas Paine. 

“ And when the world shall learn the tale 
So finely told by noble deed, 

They’ll from his memory lift the veil 
Now resting on the mighty dead; 

And in his place aloft he’ll stand, 

And priests may howl and curse in vain; 
For Truth and Justice, hand in hand, 

Shall keep our hero, Thomas Paine! ” 


THE END. 


THOMAS PAINE, 


THE APOSTLE 


OF 


Religious and Political Liberty. 


BY 


JOHN E. RE MS BURG 


“Cursed by the past, blessed by the future." 


BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED B V J. P. MENDUM, 
PATNE MEMORIAL BUILDING, 


APPLET ON STREET. 


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